Editorial: Inexcusable laxity

Unfortunately, no lessons seem to have been learnt from Delhi’s Uphaar fire tragedy of 1997

It has become a disturbing customary practice in India to discuss the efficacy of safety standards only when a major mishap occurs. After a round of routine condemnations and constitution of expert committees to probe the cause, it is back to business as usual. Accountability is never fixed and lessons are never learnt. The pointless deaths in the industrial mishaps soon become cold statistics in official records. The recent fire accidents at a children’s hospital in Delhi and a gaming zone in Rajkot, which left some 34 people dead including seven infants, brought into focus the state of safety standards nationwide and the urgent need for robust enforcement measures to avert such tragedies. Laxity in enforcing safety norms is inexcusable. Mishaps such as these are stark examples of how cheap life is in India. The Rajkot tragedy was waiting to happen. The indoor gaming facility was located in an illegal structure that neither had adequate fire-fighting equipment nor had obtained a no-objection certificate from the local fire department. As per the FIR, the owners of the commercial establishment endangered the lives of people despite knowing that a blaze on the premises could cause deaths and injuries. Taking suo motu cognisance of the case, the Gujarat High Court said it was prima facie a ‘man-made disaster’. The court observed that such gaming zones and recreational facilities had come up without necessary approvals from competent authorities. The gaming and recreational zone was teeming with families enjoying a weekend outing when the fire broke out. A thorough probe is required to establish criminal negligence that led to the shocking incident.

The fire accident at the Baby Care New Born Hospital in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar makes a mockery of the guidelines formulated by the Delhi government five years ago to bring small hospitals and nursing homes under the umbrella of fire safety regulations. These guidelines required all commercial buildings, including hospitals, to have a 6-metre-wide access road for fire tenders, 2.4-metre-wide corridors and 2-metre-wide staircases within the premises. They also mandated an underground 75,000-litre water storage tank in the building to deal with fire emergencies. Fire preparedness is a well-developed discipline in most parts of the world. But in India, safety norms are observed more in the breach than in the practice. Outbreak after outbreak in the last three decades has highlighted the failure to learn from it and bring it into the design of public spaces, apartments, hospitals, commercial and office complexes. It is obvious that fire safety norms are being blatantly given the go-by. Such callous disregard for human life must not go unpunished. Unfortunately, no lessons seem to have been learnt from Delhi’s Uphaar fire tragedy of 1997. Zero tolerance for violations should be the way forward. A nationwide audit is the need of the hour to prompt authorities into action.

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