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While the Mohali municipal corporation has been dragging its feet in ensuring fire safety arrangements at residential and commercial buildings in the city, it itself is also sitting on a tinderbox.

An audit carried out by the civic body has found glaring violations of fire-safety norms at its building in Sector 68.

Apart from handling the city’s civic affairs, the corporation also caters to over 1,000 visitors at the five-storey building everyday.

Yet, the audit has found that most of the fire extinguishers at the building are past the expiry date for several years and neither the fire pumps in the basement nor the smoke detectors all over the building are functional, putting lives at risk if a fire emergency were to occur.

Even the fire riser and fire delivery hose box are out of order, while the manual call points on all floors of the building and fire panel in the basement are also not operational.

MC commissioner Navjot Kaur said in light of the audit report, directions had been issued to the superintending engineer and to sort out all non-functional equipment within two weeks.

Hundreds of notices but no action

Apart from not ensuring fire safety as its own building, Mohali MC’s annual charade of issuing notices to fire-safety violators has not borne any result over the past several years.

Despite sending out 600 notices annually for non-compliance of the no-objection certificate for the past four years, the civic body has not penalised even a single violator. The notices include an ultimatum of 15 days, but even after years, no violating structure has been sealed.

Through a survey in 2020, the fire department had identified various properties, including high-rise buildings and commercial establishments that did not comply with fire-safety norms.

The violations included the presence of only a single entry and exit point, which could be dangerous in an emergency.

Fire extinguishers were missing on many floors and those available did not have the ISI mark. Hose reels, smoke detection alarm systems and illuminated exit signs were also found missing in most buildings. Most showrooms had loose electricity wiring.

At several industrial units and housing societies, there was no underground static water storage tank of 75,000-litre capacity with a pump, as required under fire-safety rules, and terrace water tanks with at least 10,000-litre capacity were also found missing. The absence of a fire control room and emergency lifts with firemen switches was also among the violations.

President of Consumer Protection Federation, Mohali, PS Virdi said, “MC wakes up only after a major disaster. It holds inquiries and announces compensation. But within days, it goes back into slumber, while fire-safety lapses continue to exist across the city.”

Hillary Victor is a Principal Correspondent at Chandigarh. He covers Chandigarh administration, municipal corporation and all political parties. ...view detail

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