90% staff shortage burns Gandhinagar fire dept

When over 200 NIFT students stormed Mahatma Mandir on Thursday afternoon seeking “help” from Gandhinagar Fire and Emergency Services (GFES), the situation that arose exposed two major lapses — the collapse of Z+ security arrangements for chief minister Narendra Modi and the ill-equipped condition of GFES.

A close analysis reveals the capital city’s crucial fire department service is operating at just 10% of its sanctioned strength. For a population of over two lakh that’s a terribly low figure. Currently, the sanctioned strength of trained fire officers is 50, but it’s operating with only five full-timers.

This for a city that houses the state assembly and Sachivalaya, the office and residence of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the ministers, a plethora of bureaucrats and dozens of boards and corporations.

On Thursday, a boy drowned in Sabarmati River near Bhat. When the students called GFES, they claimed they could not help as all their staff was busy in CM’s security.

GFES’s chief fire officer Mahesh Modh says, “We barely have trained firefighters to help in case of an emergency. Most of our time is spent in VIP movement and bandobast at Mahatma Mandir as this venue very often has important events with large gatherings. Moreover, we have to lookout for three nagarpalikas – Mansa, Dehgam and Kalol. They all have mini fire tenders but no firefighters.”

Ahmedabad’s chief fire officer MF Dastur’s frustration at the unavailability of trained firemen is common knowledge now. “Most nagarpalikas in the state have good equipments, but some do not have a single trained firefighter. They have a driver on contract, who takes the douser at the site of emergency and just starts the machine that sprays water. Sometimes the sweeper or the peon accompanies to assist in operating the vehicle and double up as firefighters,” he said.

“As for Ahmedabad with 13 fire stations, we are approximately 44% short staffed, but the worry is that 26 firefighters will retire by 2015,” Dastur said.

What’s worse, Modh informs in the whole of north Gujarat, there is not a single senior fully-trained firefighter. While every single nagarpalika is equipped with equipments – mini fire tenders, dousers — recruitment of personnel is somehow not happening since last several years.

“It is unclear why qualified firefighters are not being recruited. One explanation could be each nagarpalika has limited grants and they have to manage within it, so they hire temporary staff, which of course is not sufficiently trained,” Modh said.

The issue of hiring trained firefighters instead of temporary personnel without requisite qualification has been a matter of serious contention between the government and fire department.

One solution, Modh believes, could be the implementation of the fire safety and protection Act cleared by the Vidhan Sabha in 2012.

“Recruitment of trained personnel and procurement of equipments would be centralised. Several states in the country follow this practice,” Modh said.

Officer on special duty and ex-officio joint secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Gujarat, PL Sharma who is in charge of implementing the new Act said: “We are forming the rules of the act for implementation. As it encompasses more than areas falling under different authority limits, we need to have discussion with more than one department. The process is on and the act will be implemented soon.”