RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Feb.1: The Jharkhand High Court today took suo moto cognizance of frequent incidents of fire killing at least 24 persons during the last 12 days in the State.
The latest one is the incident of fire in Ashirwad apartment in Dhanbad on Tuesday killing 12 persons.
A Division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh took the cognizance and fixed date of February 2 for hearing in the matter.
The situation arose after it came into the knowledge of court that as many as 14 people including 10 women and three children were charred to die in a multi-storied building, Ashirwad Tower, in Dhanbad, the same district where five people, including a doctor couple had died on January 27.
Apart from this, it also came into the knowledge of the high court that during four days, besides 19 in Dhanbad, four people also charred to death in different parts of the state, including four in Hazaribag and Chaibasa.
In Hazaribagh, two below 5-year children, Sakshi and Avinash Kumar, playing in hey dump in Checkapi village under Barkatha block died after a fire broke out in the dump. The incident took place on January 30. In Chaibasa, Amir Hussain and his four-yr-old daughter were charred to death after a fire broke out in a morgue of SAIL’s Kiriburu-Meghahatuburu General Hospital. The incident took place on the same day.
Prior to this, on January 19, a 19-yr-old youth was charred to death while another sustained severe burn injuries after a fire broke out in the outhouse of Krishna Apartment situated under Bariatu police station area.
Incidents of fire are taking the life of people and damaging property but authorities are least bothered about the same.
State fire officer Jagjeevan Ram maintains silence on queries related to safety against fire while ADG (home guard and fire services) Suman Gupta, directs queries related to this to DCs and SPs as fire safety is at stake.
Even the state fire office is not safe against short circuits. On May 22, 2020 a fire had broken out due to a short circuit on the second floor of the State Fire Office in Doranda.
On January 2, a fire broke out in Usha Martin industrial campus in Tatisilwai due to a short circuit. The company must have incurred a loss of Rs one crore in the incident.
Prior to this, on December 29 a fierce fire broke out in Lalpur police station premises in the heart of Jharkhand capital.
Two incidents of fire took place in the months of January at GEL Church Complex.
Last year on March 22, important documents were charred as a fire broke out on the fifth floor of the Main branch of State Bank of India at Kutchery under Kotwali police station.
In the intervening night of January 31 and February 1, a shop at Vidyanagar under Sukhdeonagar police station was gutted in a fire incident.
