Dev Aurum Commercial Complex association members have said that they had submitted a letter to the deputy municipal commissioner in July 2018 regarding insufficient fire safety at their premises. In the letter, they had mentioned that the fire NOC (No Objection Certificate) for Dev Aurum Commercial Complex had expired on March 2018. They held that the AMC chose to ignore their warnings.
"To obtain the certificate, we had called the respective agencies so that NOC can be obtained as the government rules, as informed by the agency – the fire equipment installed are incomplete and non-operational so NOC can't be given to the complex which is a threat to the life of the staff as well as owners of the 360 units. Requesting you to please do the needful and take immediate steps and restore the safety of the said complex," states the letter from the Dev Aurum Commercial Cooperative Service Society Ltd to the civic body. DNA has a copy of the letter.
The members also said that after sending the letter, they had met the municipal commissioner as well. According to one of the members, they had asked the commissioner to cancel Building Use permission as no steps were taken even after the letter. "Later in October 2018, a team of the fire department had conducted an inspection and had issued a certificate to the building," added one of the members.
Upon contacting Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra, he said his chief fire officer had personally inspected the building in the past before issuing the certificate. "A few months back when the representation was made, chief fire officer himself had visited the place and made sure that the things are in order. Subsequently, the certificate was issued to the building. I have not received a report on yesterday's incident as it is still under investigation," said Nehra.