Goa club fire grave admn failure: Congress

The Congress on Sunday criticised the handling of safety measures at a club-cum-restaurant in Goa’s Arpora, where at least 25 people lost their lives in a late-night fire, calling the incident a serious lapse in oversight that requires an immediate and transparent investigation.

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives and said the tragedy pointed to a wider failure of the state administration.

He conveyed condolences to the families of the victims and wished a swift recovery for those injured, while urging authorities to fix responsibility and ensure such preventable disasters do not recur. “ This is not just an accident, it is a criminal failure of safety and governance. A thorough, transparent probe must fix accountability and ensure such preventable tragedies don’t occur again,” Rahul Gandhi said on X.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also mourned the deaths and described the scale of the incident as evidence of a breakdown in regulatory vigilance.