Lucknow hotel fire: Probe nails 50 officials from six government departments for laxity

LUCKNOW: The two-member committee probing all the aspects related to the fire that broke out at Hotel Levana Suites in Lucknow has named at least 50 officials from across six departments for laxity in awarding clearances to the hotel building, the set-up and other related permits to the owners of the facility.
The list of departments includes the fire services, Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA), district administration and excise department. The two-member team has also given its recommendations to avoid such instances in future.
An official privy to the probe disclosed that action against officials of all the departments, who were responsible for allotment of the land, map and construction of the hotel and issuing licences, will be taken by the government.
The two-member committee has also given suggestions of how to tackle such an incident in the future and recommendations of averting it in future.
The report was prepared based on a probe conducted by a four-member panel from fire services, forensic examination, records of LDA, LMC, LESA.
The report also mentions how NOC was given to the hotel by the fire department and the facilities lacking it including the firefighting system; besides, the report mentions that without approval of the map, the building was erected. The committee has also submitted records of other commercial buildings in the city operating without an approval by the authorities.
On September 5, at least four hotel guests were killed, and 11 others were injured in a fire at Levana Suites hotel located on MM Marg. Later, the police had arrested the hotel owners, Rahul Agarwal and Rohit Agarwal, along with general manager Sagar Srivastava on charges of culpable homicide (causing death without the intention of murder) and causing death due to negligence.