MARGAO
Even as the fire incident at the Margao Municipal Council has sounded a wakeup call for the City Fathers and Babus to put a fire fighting system in place, the Fire Services has called for a list of theatres and public auditoriums, besides public buildings in Salcete taluka to facilitate inspections by the department’s officials.
The moot question, however, remains unanswered “ when will the Margao civic body furnish the list of the public buildings, including the multiplexes and cinema theatres, besides public auditoriums to pave way for the inspections.
And, whether the Fire Department will remind the civic body to send the list to the Fire divisional offices to pave way for the inspections as per the High Court order dated December 15, 2022 passed in Writ Petition No 304 of 2004?
Fire Services Divisional Officer, Central and South Zone, Rajendra Haldankar had sent the SOS dated January 27, 2023 to the Margao Municipal Chief Officer. The letter, however, was received by the Margao Municipal Council on February 27, 2023.
Sources in the know informed that the Margao Municipal technical section has marked the Fire Department’s letter to the Municipal taxation section on the plea the taxation section is the authority issuing trade licences to the establishments.
So far, however, the MMC is believed to have showed no urgency in the matter since the time the civic body had received the letter from the Fire Services.
Post-fire incident in the Margao Municipal Council, questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body whether the Municipality would compile a list of the public buildings and send the same to the Fire Department to initiate further action.
Divisional Fire Officer, Rajendra Haldankar pointed out the department has sought the list of public buildings and public auditoriums and multiplexes from the civic body since the municipality has been the licensing authority. “The Fire Department has been conducting fire audit of public buildings. High rise buildings are being inspected by the department higher officials. This has been an ongoing process,” he said.
He added: “Post-High Court order, the department has decided to go about inspecting the public buildings, including public auditoriums from the public safety point of view.”
Director of Fire Services Nitin Raikar said the department has decided to inspect the public buildings to conduct a fire audit. “It’s not that the public buildings and high rise buildings were not inspected earlier. But, after the High Court passed the order in the writ petition, it has been decided to conduct inspections of the public buildings again,” Raikar said.
Margao Fire Officer Gill D’Sa pointed out that the Fire Department had in the recent past made a host of recommendations to the public buildings to install fire preventive measures. He said the task of installing fire prevention measures in the government building has been entrusted to the PWD.
A DAY AFTER INCIDENT, MMC DISCUSSES WITH AGENCY TO MAKE BUILDING FIRE PROOF
