Another tragedy, no lessons in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: The death of three workers in a fire at a Ram Nagar factory on Tuesday is not the first such tragedy to have taken place in Ludhiana. Such incidents happen in the industrial city with criminal regularity. However, it is the remedial action which is found wanting.
Sample this: four men were killed in a factory fire in Mushtaq Nagar on November 20, 2017. A day after the blaze, there was the initial furore and calls for action. However, six years down the line, nothing has changed, as was visible in the latest blaze.
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against the owner of the factory in Ram Nagar and his partners under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC. In his complaint, the fire station officer concerned has said the three men died as there were no fire-safety arrangements in the industrial unit where they worked.
But the fire-hit industrial unit is not an isolated case. Fire-safety violations continue taking place unabated in the city’s industrial units, especially when it comes to obtaining no-objection certificates (NOCs) for fire safety. Despite several claims, the MC and fire department have failed to act against defaulters. There are areas like Bajwa Nagar, Gandhi Market, Sunder Nagar, Haibowal, Chander Nagar and Bahadur K Road, where units are located in thickly populated areas. In case a fire breaks out in any of these localities, a tragedy will not be far.
The MC has written to the principal secretary of the local bodies department to make the fire NOC compulsory for issuing electricity connections to industrial units, so that there should be no scope of violation. Civic body officials admitted to facing such problems. An officer, who did not wish to be named, said they had proposed to zone such areas and implement a restriction on the number of floors, but they did not get any response. He said they had requested decision-making bodies to allow only up to two floors in such places.
MC zonal commissioner Neeraj Jain, when contacted, said there was an online portal for applying for a fire NOC and people could obtain it any time but they hardly bothered. “Recently, we issued letters to bank heads and district education officers for ensuring fire safety arrangements on their premises and get the NOCs,” he said.
He said it was also the people’s responsibility to fulfil norms.