Drive against fire safety violation losing steam

Surat: The demolition drive that Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) began after the Takshashila Arcade fire tragedy of May 24, seems to have started losing steam.
Sources in the SMC said that after the school-college authorities and owners of industrial units met with chief minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar, the civic body has been asked to go slow on the drive against fire safety norm violators. The SMC officials have been asked to give the violators some time to install fire safety system.
After the crackdown on units with illegal structures, representatives of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), some trade organizations and even school managements requested Gujarat CM to go slow with the drive. They urged relief from spot demolition of temporary structures.
The change in stance of the SMC can be gauged from the fact that number of raids has gone down by over 50% to 30-40 raids since last couple of days. The number of units raided before that was about 80 per day.
A senior fire official confirmed “Some instructions have come from the state government and so zone officials are going slow with the drive on fire safety.”
However, city mayor Dr Jagdish Patel told TOI, “Instructions are not to stop demolition but to prioritise it. The priority at present are structures in schools, colleges, tuition classes, restaurants and dome on terraces.”
“Demolition of illegal structures will be second on priority list and those will be dealt with in second phase. We need check fire safety in schools before they reopen,” Patel added.
However, the SMC commissioner M Thennarasan denied any instruction from the state government. “After representation from people it has been decided to give establishments without fire safety some time to get it installed or comply to the norms.”