This story is from May 20, 2015

Notice to 119 buildings for fire norms violation

The owners of 119 buildings spread across Aminabad, Lalbagh, Hazratganj, Kaisarbagh and Naka Hindola have been issued notices for violating fire safety norms. The buildings came under the scanner for the absence of structural provisions to handle an emergency fire situation.
Notice to 119 buildings for fire norms violation
LUCKNOW: The owners of 119 buildings spread across Aminabad, Lalbagh, Hazratganj, Kaisarbagh and Naka Hindola have been issued notices for violating fire safety norms. The buildings came under the scanner for the absence of structural provisions to handle an emergency fire situation.
Out of the 119 buildings served notice, around 100 are hotels located in Naka Hindola.
Chief fire officer AB Pandey said cases have also been filed against 55 owners, and these currently pending in the court of the chief judicial magistrate. “A number of these buildings are located in posh areas such as Jopling Road, Sapru Marg, Park Road, Madan Mohan Malviya Marg, Rana Pratap Marg, Lalbagh, Faizabad Road, Vidhan Sabha Marg and Mahatma Gandhi Marg, among several other localities of the city.”
Senior fire officials said people generally tend to ignore fire safety norms. “However, after the recent earthquakes, the tendency seems to be changing,” said an official.
Additional district magistrate (Lucknow East) Nidhi Srivastava, said, “Additional notices have been sent to the owners of the buildings which are not complying with the fire safety norms. The deadline of this notice expires in a week, after which action will be initiated against the defaulters.” The exact quantum of punishment would be decided in consultation with the chief fire safety officer, she said. “Some government establishments like Ganna Sanasthan were initially not complying 100% with the fire safety norms. But now, they have started modification work to be in line with the rules,” she said.
Some owners, however, did not quite agree with the fire department’s assessment. Sarju Prasad, the owner of UPTEC building on Rana Pratap Marg said, “The building was built in 1988, while the UP Fire Prevention & Fire Safety Act was enacted in 2005. So technically, we do not come under the ambit of the Act. However, after the notice was served to us in 2007, we carried out the necessary modifications suggested by the department. We even hired the construction agency suggested by the then chief fire officer to leave no room for error.”
FACING THE HEAT
A no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department is mandatory in the following cases:
Construction of a multi-storey building whose height is above 15 metres
Covered area of an industrial unit
Construction of schools, colleges, universities, nursing homes and hospitals which are spread across 500 square metre area and are less than 15 metres in height.
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