Cracking the whip on hotels for flouting norms, the Delhi Government has cancelled fire safety certificates of 14 more hotels in Karol Bagh area, taking the total number of such establishments to 71.
Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain tweeted, “Fire safety certificates of 14 more hotels/guesthouses have been suspended after violations were found during inspections. A total of 71 NoCs have been suspended so far. We will not compromise with fire safety. Human lives are precious & their safety has to be given top priority.”
In past few days, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government had cancelled fire safety certificates of business establishments for various violations in Karol Bagh, where a massive fire at a hotel recently killed 17 people, and ordered their closure.
The Government had issued instructions to municipal corporations and police asking them to seal these establishments in the wake of violations of fire safety norms.
The fire department had on February 13 inspected 23 hotels, out of which 13 were found to be violating fire safety norms. On Thursday, 22 hotels were checked, out of which 17 were found to be violating laid down rules. On Friday, Jain, who heads the fire department, said that this drive would continue across the national capital.
Deadly fire in Arpit Palace was followed by a massive fire in which 250 were gutted and a factory caught fire on wee hours of Thursday which was controlled on time. All these incidents are a telling commentary on the state of affairs as criminal neglect and apathy of civic agencies snuffed out various innocent lives for years. Instead of doing detailed security audit of all the budget hotels that have proliferated in Karol Bagh, Rajinder Nagar, Nabi Karim, Paharganj, Jama Masijd area in highly congested Central district, Corporation officials are busy in passing the buck on each other.
According to sources in Fire Department, only around 25 percent restaurants and hotels in Delhi have the mandatory NOC from Fire Department and only 1540 guest house are so far registered with DFS that possess NOC.
“We get letters to inspect from civic authorities and we issue NOC after our inspection us done. NOC is not issued for guest houses or buildings being used as a hotel which has two floors. Most of the building owners show that they are using facility as guest house and during inspection of restaurants owners’ shows sitting capacity less than 50 but they increase that once inspection is done. The NOC is renewed in three years,” said Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer, Delhi Fire Services department.
Meanwhile, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation shifted the blame on Delhi government for allegedly allowing the unchecked growth of illegal construction in city on the name of implementing of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions), Second Act, 2007.
Putting the blame on DFS, he said that there are more than 600 guest houses in the areas and most of them easily get fire safety clearances. “It is difficult to check violations as there is no mechanism to submit the construction completion certificate at the time of applying for a trade licence,” he added.
