The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Fire safety: court to take up PIL today

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Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Fire safety: court to take up PIL today

N. Rahul

Violation of fire safety norms; Government notified on unsafe buildings

HYDERABAD: The Vigilance and Enforcement and Fire Service Departments have put the State Government on notice about hundreds of residential and commercial buildings in the twin cities that are exposed to fire accidents.

While the Vigilance Department has informed the Government that 1,500 buildings exceed height restrictions as amended earlier this year, the Fire Service Department has furnished details of 2,400 premises that did not have No Objection Certificate (NOC) on the same ground. Even after amendment with retrospective effect from February 2001, about 1,000 buildings failed to meet the fire safety norms, Director General of Fire Services, Alok Srivastava, told The Hindu .

Meanwhile, the High Court posted for hearing on Friday a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the vulnerability of multi-storeyed buildings around Hyderabad to fire accidents.

Three years ago, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in his report, stated that 2,935 buildings which were above the specified height had applied for regularisation without the Fire Department's NOC. The Vigilance Department verified these applications and found that the buildings were indeed regularised by the MCH and surrounding municipalities with a rider that the permissions were subject to issue of NOC by Fire Service. The municipal bodies never bothered to verify later whether the NOCs were issued. Mr. Srivastava said the height of commercial buildings was restricted to 15 m and residential complexes 18 m since 2001.

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