NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday condoled the loss of 21 lives in the Malviya Nagar fire incident, assuring support to the affected families and government measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
CM Gupta wrote in a tweet, “Immediately upon receiving information about the incident, teams of Delhi Fire Services, Delhi Police, DDMA, CATS Ambulance Services and other emergency response agencies were mobilised and rescue & relief operations launched.
Their swift response helped in rescuing & evacuating several persons from the affected premises.” She added that the Delhi government was closely monitoring the situation. “All necessary medical assistance and support are being extended to the affected families. In this hour of grief, the Delhi government stands firmly with the affected families,” she said.
Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood, who visited the site, said, “Authorities are gathering the relevant documents to determine whether the building had a valid NOC, if it had permission to operate as a hotel or restaurant and how many rooms were authorised to be run as a bed-and-breakfast facility.”
The owner of this building and anyone whose negligence led to this tragedy, he assured, would be identified and arrested.” The owner was nabbed later in the day.
Sood added, “All agencies concerned have been told to conduct inspections. Any building found to be operating in violation of safety norms will be identified by the evening and sealed.”
Local area MLA Satish Upadhyay, who was also on the spot, said, “Our first response was to activate the disaster management process.”