Fire department serves notices to 7 SCOs

LUDHIANA: Kicking off a fire audit once again, fire officials served notices to owners of 7 commercial complexes in Feroze Gandhi Market on Friday. Through these notices, fire officials have asked the owners to either show their ‘no objection certificates’ or file a reply explaining why they did not have the same.

On Friday, the notices were served to the shop-cum-offices (SCOs) in the market. The rest of the buildings will be covered later on. After receiving notices, some of the owners of the complexes started objecting, saying they had already procured the NOC from the department, but still they had been served notices. Fire officials are serving notices to owners of commercial buildings for ensuring fire arrangements in the market, which is frequented by a large number of visitors daily. Many banks and other commercial establishments too have their branches in this market. In case of any fire incident, it would become tough to control the situation.

Meanwhile, Kuldip Singh Ghai, owner of Shanghai Tower who has also been served the notice, rued that he had recently got his fire NOC renewed on August 23, but even then he had been handed over this notice. He said he had made all necessary fire safety arrangements in the tower, and he would show his NOC to the department.

Assistant divisional fire officer Bhupinder Sandhu said: “We are just cross-checking whether fire safety arrangements have been made by these commercial establishments or not, so we are serving notices to every building.” He said if one has any issues, he can show the documents.

However, fire officials found it difficult to trace owners of many commercial complexes. Now they requested members of traders association in the market to provide contact numbers and addresses of owners of these complexes. The problem compounded as the actual owners, have further allotted the SCOs to tenants in many cases. Now, they have requested the market association to provide details of the owners.

Assistant divisional fire officer Bhupinder Singh said: “Through these notices, we have given seven days to the owners of these complexes for submitting their reply on whether they had made any arrangements for fire safety or not. Those who do not reply to the notice will face music, as we will write to the government for taking action against defaulters.” He said fire safety arrangements are made according to the height and area of the complexes, and once owners approach the fire department, the officials would guide them as to whether there are adequate arrangements or not in the buildings.