At least 15 guest houses and restaurants in Karol Bagh, including Cross Road Bar & Restaurant at Arpit Palace hotel where 17 people were killed in a blaze on February 12, were granted fire clearance certificates through a breach of protocol and bypassing of procedures, government documents accessed by Hindustan Times show.

The officer who carried out the safety inspection and recommended that the establishment be granted licences, deputy chief fire officer (DCFO) of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) Rajesh Panwar, was posted in the New Delhi zone in 2016 when the clearances were given even though the Karol Bagh is under the jurisdiction of the department’s south zone.

In addition, inspections were carried out within one to five days of the applications being received from the guest houses, the chain of command was broken with the inspection reports sent directly to the director of DFS instead of the chief fire officer of the region, and clearances were granted within a week instead of the usual process that takes a minimum of 20 to 25 days.

The director of DFS at the time was GC Mishra, who holds the post to this day.

Cross Road Bar & Restaurant at Arpit Palace, where the fire broke out because of a short circuit, was found by a government inspection report submitted on February 15 do not have a panic alarm, no functional fire safety equipment, staff untrained to handle fire accidents, and a locked fire exit during the time of the February 12 incident. The owner of the hotel, Rakesh Goel, was arrested on February 16 and is in police custody.

According to documents accessed by Hindustan Times, the restaurant applied for a fire clearance on May 9, 2016; the inspection was conducted by Panwar on May 18, and sent for approval directly to the director of DFS.

The inspection signature in the report was Panwar’s and the final clearance certificate was signed by Mishra on May 20. HT has a copy of the report.

The regular process is that buildings which apply for fire clearances are usually inspected by an assistant divisional officer of that zone. The report is then forwarded to the divisional officer, who sends it to the DCFO, and then to the chief fire officer, who finally passes the file to the director for clearance.

The documents also show that for two of the 15 clearances granted by Panwar in Karol Bagh, inspection was conducted on the same day the application for clearance was filed by the guest houses. In four cases, the inspection date on the file is the day after the date of application. Fire officials said that an inspection is normally carried out after a minimum of two weeks from when the application is filed.

Sohni Residency filed an application with DFS on May 15, 2016 and the inspection happened the same day; the inspection at Hotel Mandakini Palace took place on May 23, 2016, the same day it filed the application. Pitrasahib Grand, Golden Moments Party Palace, Hotel Intercity, and Blueberry Guest House requested fire clearances on May 31, 2016. The inspections for all of these establishments were conducted by Panwar on June 1. The clearances were granted six days later.

Curiously, however, no noting was made in the department’s “occurrence list”, after which an official vehicle is assigned to the official to complete the inspection, on any of these days.

In two months after he granted clearance to the guest houses, Panwar was moved to the south Delhi zone, and the Karol Bagh area is now officially under his jurisdiction.

When asked about the discrepancies, Panwar dismissed the allegations and said that he was “assigned the task of inspecting the properties by seniors”.

“What is the harm in conducting an inspection? The file was marked to me and I did my job,” he told HT.

The fire chief, Mishra, said there was “nothing unusual” in the process followed in providing clearances to these restaurants and guest houses. He added that it was “possible that the concerned official was on leave or was overloaded with work” and the case got transferred to the official of the other zone.

“There are cases where the zones overlap and officials from other zones can inspect the buildings seeking permissions,” Mishra said.

But former fire chief SK Dheri said the sequence of events was highly irregular. When an application of clearance is filed, it first comes to the DFS headquarters, from where it is transferred to the respective zones for clearance, he added.

“If there is proof of protocol being ignored and inspections and clearances being issued in a short period, then action should be taken against the officials. If responsibility can be fixed in the Uphaar case, then it can be fixed here too,” Dheri said, referring to the1997 fire at Delhi’s Uphaar cinema that killed 59 people.

Another former DFS director, AK Sharma, said that in “normal circumstances” a DCFO does not go for inspection of properties, unless the recommendation comes from higher authorities. He also said that around five days is required just for the inspection request to reach the concerned official, and another 20-25 days for the final clearance to be issued.

“At least in my tenure, I have not seen a DCFO-rank official conduct inspection, unless there is an urgent requirement or recommendation from the higher-ups. There are also multiple levels of reviews carried out in each inspection,” Sharma said.

Karol Bagh’s Delhi Hotel and Restaurant Owner Association president Balan Mani said that there are around 275 guest houses, and after three years, a reminder for certificate expiry is sent to the owners. “The renewal process takes around 30 days. They send us a date when the official will come and inspect the premises,” Mani said, without commenting about the specifics of the clearances given to the 15 guest houses in 2016.

Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain could not be reached for comments despite several calls and text messages.

Last week, the licences of 30 guest houses in Karol Bagh were suspended for inadequate fire safety measures on Jain’s orders after violations were found in the aftermath of the Arpit Palace fire. Jain promised to further strengthen the Delhi Fire Service Rules, 2010, by amending it to make the violations more explicit and the regulations more stringent. He also said that checks would be carried out across the city.

First Published: Feb 22, 2019 11:13 IST