Fire safety goes for toss at LIT, pollution board

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, May 8

The Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) has neglected fire-safety norms at premises by failing to replace outdated fire extinguishers with new ones.

Arvind Sharma, secretary, Council of RTI Activists, filed a complaint with additional chief secretary of the local government and director of the local bodies. In the complaint, he alleged that fire extinguishers hanging outside the offices of the Acting Superintending Engineer (SE) and the Executive Officer (EO) of the LIT have gone past expiry date for more than three months now but the officials have not bothered replace them with new ones.

Sharma said there had been several fire tragedies in the city, more often than not, due to lapse on the part of owners or occupants of industrial, commercial and administrative complexes, and non-observance of fire-safety norms.

“The fire office of the Municipal Corporation also washes its hands off the responsibility to periodically check proper maintenance of fire-safety measures once the NoC is issued to a public building, and seldom is inspection carried out to ensure that fire-fighting equipment installed in such buildings is operational,” said the complainant.

Sharma has demanded that directions be issued to the Municipal Fire Brigade to inspect fire-safety preparedness at all public buildings occasionally and take action as per the law where lapses were found.

It is not only the LIT office where fire-safety norms have gone for a toss. The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) office in Focal Point is also among the defaulters.

In a similar complaint lodged with the PPCB chairman, president of the Social Awareness Society Gajjan Singh Jassal has said fire extinguishers outside the offices of a Superintending Engineer and an Executive Engineer of the PPCB has gone past its expiry date for more than six months now.

The complainant emphasised that fire-safety norms should be strictly followed in government offices and autonomous institutions and those flouting these measures should be punished accordingly.

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