144 buildings slapped with fire safety notice

Rajkot: The Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has slapped 144 notices to management of high-rise buildings, restaurants, including 56 hospitals, for violation of the fire safety rules. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Government Medical College is also in the list of violators.
Government medical college is located in the campus of the biggest civil hospital of Saurashtra. RMC feels that it's a serious revelation that government medical college lacked fire safety facility.

The Rajkot civic body had begun surprise checking at restaurants and other buildings after the Mumbai restaurant fire last year. The drive started December 31 last year. Since then RMC found 144 defaulters and have asked them to comply with the fire safety norms immediately.

RMC commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani said, "If these defaulters don't adhere to fire safety norms within the stipulated time frame, we will take strict action against them like sealing their property." RMC officials found that besides hospitals, more than 40 restaurants in the city are lacking fire safety equipment.

Fire department officials checked 295 premises over the last two months and found that at some premises there was no water connection, fire extinguisher was outdated and there was no stock of Dry Chemical Powder (DCF) and as some places there was no fire exit.