Rise in fire incidents: Lokayukta calls for report on NOC status

In the wake of rise in fire incidents across the city, Lokayukta Justice SS Kothari has taken cognizance over the news items appearing in media related to thousands of establishments being run in the city without fire No Objection Certificate (NOC).

In last few days reports were published by DNA  and other publications informing that many marriage halls, education institutions, godowns, factories, restaurants, hotels etc are being run and the fire NOC for them has not been issued.  It was brought to light that there are about 40,000 establishments across the city out of which merely 625 had taken fire NOC.

In recent days, three incidences of fire in the city drew attention. One of them was fire at the Rose Garden near Jawahar Circle, while second one was fire incident at a chemical factory in VKI while third was the Mysore Mahal fire on Sirsi Road.

The news reports which were published reported that the fire NOC was not there even though inflammable substances were being used at these premises.

Taking all these issues into consideration, Lokayukta Justice Kothari considering it as irregularity, negligence of public servants and danger to safety of common man has taken cognizance and sought report from additional chief secretary of local self government department on  various points related to this.

On Thursday also, panic gripped Walled City as a major fire broke out in a woodshed during the wee hours Nearby, sixty people were rescued by the firefighters. The major negligence in the woodshed was that there was no firefighting system installed at the woodshed. Did the woodshed given on rent follow the National Building Code (NBC), 2016, guidelines lists every detail when it comes to construction, including fire safety?