RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Feb.2: The Jharkhand High Court today directed the State Government to hold a fire safety audit across the state.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Deepak Roshan gave the direction while taking suo moto cognizance in the matter of fire in Dhanbad which charred 14 to death on January 31 night.
Earlier, the division bench asked the state government about the action taken in the matter till date and directed the urban development secretary to file an affidavit in the matter while verbally observing that the incident was unfortunate and a proper investigation is required in the matter.
Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan and his junior Piyush Chitresh during the hearing informed the court that two committees have been constituted to investigate the entire incident. Along with this, Ranjan informed the court that the DCs and SPs of all the districts of the state have also been instructed to review the standards related to fire safety.
Notably, at least 24 persons have died during the last 12 days in various fire incidents in Jharkhand.
Every time a devastating fire incident happens, the State government issues a directive to conduct a fire audit and forgets to follow it up. Even if, a report is submitted by the fire department, it is pushed under the carpet.
For example, in 2016, the then Chief Secretary (CS) Sudhir Tripathi had ordered a fire safety audit of all the hospitals, including private nursing homes and medical colleges hospitals and implemented the reports after the SUM Hospital Bhubaneswar (Odisha) fire incident in 2016 in which 20 patients died several injured.
Earlier in 2011, the then Chief Secretary had directed a fire safety audit of all the hospitals/ nursing homes of the state after the AMRI Hospital Kolkata fire incident in which 89 patients died and more than 100 were injured.
Again, the state government issued a similar order in 2021 when 10 patients were killed on March 26, 2021, in Covid Hospital, Mumbai fire incident.
Official sources said a fire safety audit was conducted whenever a directive was issued and a report was duly submitted but action was never taken to enforcing the hospitals to implement it.
