The past fire incidents
in the Walled city area seem to have taught nothing to the Jaipur
Municipal Corporation. Most city markets are vulnerable to fire
accidents as majority of the shopkeepers do not have even the basic
fire-fighting equipments.

Rajasthan Vyapar Mahasangh
vice president Suresh Saini said recently, “A majority of the
shopkeepers have taken no safety measures. It is very necessary to douse
a fire at the initial stage before it goes out of control. We will
write to all the associations to make it compulsory for traders to have
fire extinguishers.”

Many areas in the Walled City including
Purohitji Ka Katla, Gheewalon Ka Rasta and Haldiyo Ka Rasta are prone to
fire disasters.

Last year, there was a fire in the narrow
lanes of Baba Harish Chand Marg which claimed three lives. The fire
department controlled the fire with a lot of difficulty. Thus, the
incident caused a lot of damage.

Chief fire officer Ishwar Lal
Jat said, “The Walled City has narrow lanes and it requires extra effort
to extinguish the fire. Also, there are lots of encroachments and
traffic congestion is always there so even a small fire could turn into a
major one for the lack of proper fire fighting measures.”

He added, “The narrow lanes make it extremely difficult for firefighters to carry out the rescue operations.”

Despite space crunch, the shopkeepers demand that fire tenders be stationed outside every gate of the Walled City.

Meanwhile, Vijay Ajmera, a resident of the Walled City area, said, “The JMC
department is doing nothing to ensure safety of the residents. There
are so many commercial activities going on in the narrow residential
lanes, however, there is no one check to it.”

He added, “In the past one year, more than 10 fire incidents at illegal commercial places were reported in the Walled city area. But, no action has been taken so far.”