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| Draft submitted to Govt on SHRC's direction | | Fire Safety Act likely to get teeth | | Sumit Sharma
JAMMU, Nov 23: The Department of Directorate of Fire and Emergency Service, J&K, is likely to get teeth in respect of Fire Safety Act as the draft in this regard has been submitted to the government for enactment of the same, which has been missing in the state.
The government came to know about the importance of the act when Jammu based Human rights activist approached J&K State Human Rights Commission seeking its direction to the state government for enacting 'Fire Safety Act' in the state.
The activist in the complaint filed to the human rights panel, submitted that the State Government is ignoring the safety of its citizens from fire accidents in the absence of 'Fire Safety Act' in the state and prayed to the State Human Rights Commission to issue appropriate directions to the State Government to enact 'Fire Safety Act' at the earliest to protect the fundamental right of 'Right to Life' of innocent citizens of the state and to avoid any tragic fire accident.
Based on the plea, SHRC issued directions to the state government to enact the act in later and spirit. Taking cognizance, the government wrote to Directorate of Fire and Emergency Service to draft the bill for its enactment and accordingly the draft was made and submitted to the government.
The startling revelation about the absence of Fire Force Act in Jammu and Kashmir came to fore in reply to an RTI application filed by an RTI activist Balvinder Singh from Jammu. He had sought information about the number of Cinema Halls which had approached for the issuance of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Fire and Emergency Services Department in year 2010-11 and 2011-12.
The Department, in reply, maintained that the office only issues necessary recommendations with regard to the fire protection and fire safety measures before construction/existing functional cinema hall after conducting fire audit and on spot inspection of the site.
"There is no stringent enforcement as on date in absence of Fire Force Act, as such the office issues only technical recommendations regarding fire safety measure, whosoever approaches department for the same," the department maintained.
Later, Deepak also filed RTI to the department and sought details about the act. The department in reply having number DF&ES/RTI/606 informed that there were 15 owners of establishments including hotels, nursing homes, banquet halls, schools ,colleges, petrol pumps etc have applied for the NOC from department but the department act as an advisory board as it is helplessness to take strict action against the defaulters and admits that since there is no stringent enforcement as on date in absence of Fire Act, as such the department only issues the recommendations for adopting fire safety measures but these recommendations are not taken seriously by the concerned and also since they are not vested with the power to inspect whether the recommendations has been complied or not , most of the times the recommendations remains only on papers.
The matter was later brought to the notice of SHRC seeking directions to the government for enactment of the same. |
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