HYDERABAD: In a big relief to the organisers of exhibition society, a division bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday granted permission to them to go ahead with ‘Numaish - 2020’ event (80th annual All India Industrial Exhibition) at Nampally exhibition grounds here on Wednesday. While expressing satisfaction with the reports submitted and explanation given by the authorities concerned regarding safety measures taken for the 45-day event, the bench, however, directed the member-secretary of State Legal Services Authority to inspect the stalls and safety measures taken at the exhibition grounds for the event to be held between January 1 to February 15, and to report to the court on January 6.
Besides, the bench directed the organisers to take steps ensuring that three gates (out of a total of nine) should be kept open for the people to escape in the event of any untoward incident and not to lock the remaining gates and to place trained staff to help the needy. The bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy was passing this order in a PIL filed by Khaja Aijazuddin, advocate of the city, seeking direction to the exhibition society for closure of exhibition for its failure to comply with fire safety measures as per provisions of the Telangana Fire Services Act, 1999.
A PIL was filed after a major fire struck the exhibition on Jan 30 this year wherein property worth crores of rupees was gutted. Special counsel for Telangana S Sharath Kumar submitted the map of the exhibition grounds to the court for examination. He informed the court about the installation of a modern generator to overcome the problem of power cuts, setting up of underground water storage with a capacity of about 1.5 lakh litres and other equipment to fight fire accidents, if any, and other arrangements made for escape of the visitors in the event of any untoward incident. The society has cleared all the dues which were pending to various departments. All required steps have been taken as per rules and guidelines to ensure smooth conduct of the event, he added. After granting permission for the Numaish, the bench directed the member secretary of Legal Services Authority to visit the exhibition and inspect the stalls, steps taken regarding safety and security and to submit a report to the court. The bench posted the matter to Jan 6 for further hearing.