Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation sleeping on fire audit report of buildings for seven months
HYDERABAD: Monday's fire mishap at Hyderabad’s Shine Children’s Hospital, that claimed the life of a three-month-old, and injured five others, is another one in a series of major fire accidents reported in commercial establishments within Greater Hyderabad limits in the last one year. Meanwhile, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) continues to sleep on the fire safety of buildings in its.
The fire mishaps at Nampally Exhibition Grounds, Khan Lateef Khan Building, Opp Fateh Maidan Club, and others, have earlier exposed the poor fire safety infrastructure in the city’s commercial establishments. Following this, in February this year, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) had ordered an audit of fire safety measures taken by such establishments and asked the city’s civic body to submit a report in a month’s time.
Seven months on, the GHMC is yet to submit the audit report. When contacted the GHMC’s fire safety wing said that the audit is yet to be completed and the report will be submitted soon. Moreover, it may be noted that none of the city’s hospitals and nursing homes were checked for fire safety under the GHMC’s audit, despite the instructions being for all commercial establishments.
Since February, the MAUD principal secretary, Arvind Kumar, has personally pointed out the lacunae in fire safety compliance of various commercial buildings like restaurants, hotels, hostels, hospitals, schools and function halls. He had also expressed a need for vulnerability analysis of all densely populated and hazardous buildings in the city, in addition to the GHMC’s assessment of fire safety equipment and manpower available in all establishments. He also ordered GHMC officials to serve notices and initiate action against managements that had failed to follow rules.
Meanwhile, following the Shine Hospital mishap on Monday, the Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) wing of GHMC woke up from its long slumber and announced to slap inspection notices on as many as 1,600 hospitals and nursing homes regarding their fire safety assessment. EVDM director, Viswajit Kampati, said on Monday that GHMC will carry out inspections in the said hospitals and based on the inspections, necessary action will be initiated against defaulters.