BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad for ignoring fire safety measures in KR Market. It warned that the Commissioner and Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES) department officials will be named as the first and second accused respectively if any fire mishap occurred in the market.
The division bench of Acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar came down heavily on the BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, who was summoned to the court, after it learnt that KR Market building was allowed to function without ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) from the F&ES department.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bengaluru Flower Merchants’ Association, seeking directions to remove the shops that were built on the passage left out for fire safety in KR Market, the court observed that it could pass an order to close down KR Market, but did not do so considering the livelihood of poor people and traders. The court, however, said it would not hesitate to pass such an order if fire safety measures were not taken as recommended by the F&ES department within two weeks.
While asking the BBMP Commissioner to remove shops blocking the passage provided in the sanctioned plan of the market, the court asked Manjunath Prasad to submit a status report in two weeks in relation to compliance of measures suggested by the officials of the F&ES department.The court further slammed Prasad after it was brought to its notice that the civic body did not comply with 19 issues raised by the F&ES department (see box for some of them).
Only poor people and commoners would die, and not officials or corporators, if any untoward incident like the recent one in Hubballi takes place in KR Market, the court observed. The BBMP is only taking chances by not obtaining the ‘NOC’ from the F&ES department.The court directed the BBMP Commissioner and officials of Fire and Emergency Services to visit the market immediately and take steps to obtain the ‘NOC’.
Meanwhile, Prasad submitted that they had conceived a project of Rs 50 crore for putting in place a mechanism of fire fighting, of which Rs 2.7 crore was earmarked for procuring fire-fighting equipment. As many as 1,800 sprinklers would be installed in the market building, he added. Prasad also pleaded that he need at least two months’ time for procurement of fire-fighting equipment as tender had to be called for the same. The next hearing will be on April 3.