DNA Edit: Gutted in apathy

The devastating blaze at a firecracker factory on the outskirts of Delhi will become another piece of data, or just a footnote, in the history of criminal negligence. It wouldn’t matter that 17 people, all of them were workers in the factory, lost their lives in the mishap. In a routine gesture of taking action, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, no different from his counterparts elsewhere in India, has ordered a probe, biding his time till the dust settles down.

After all, people dying for no fault of their own is too insignificant an incident for the government to crack the whip. North Delhi Mayor Preeti Aggarwal’s insensitive remark caught on camera sums up the official attitude. She is keen on saving her own skin because the factory fell in her jurisdiction. Aggarwal is part of the system that looks away from violations because the owners of factories and establishments know how to bribe their way through.

Corruption, at an institutional level, is so endemic that no amount of resistance – in the form of legislation or citizen movements – can make a noticeable impact. Understandably, official response, in terms of taking tough actions against those issuing permits and licences, is tardy and haphazard, and in most cases just an eyewash. In the wake of the Mumbai fire tragedy on December 29, five civic officials were suspended as a face-saving gesture. Since then, only four people have been arrested, of which one is a fire official who had issued a fire no-objection certificate to the rooftop resto bar from where the blaze had originated. Our cities are dangerous places to live in. Delhi is a tinderbox, so to speak.

No lessons were learnt from the Uphaar Cinema fire in 1997 in which 59 people suffocated to death and many more were critically injured in the stampede. A probe into the mishap had revealed how corruption facilitated the violations of fire code norms. Yet, 20 years later, in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy, it was revealed that most eateries in Khan Market and Hauz Khas, the upscale party hubs in the national capital, do not have fire licences. Mumbai, the city of sky-kissing towers and sprawling slums, is in a disadvantageous position. Not many fire engines have the ladder to reach the top floors of high-rises.

In the city’s slums, a minor spark can lead to a huge conflagration, given the nature of the construction. Temporary structures of bamboo and wood with inflammable substances inside is a textbook case for disaster. The Mumbai civic corporation, when it deigns to carry out a fire audit in residential and commercial establishments, turns it into an opportunity to seek bribes. Let’s accept the harsh truth. The people who died in the firecracker factory were poor. Their lives didn’t matter. How many of us remember that 12 workers died of asphyxiation in a Mumbai snacks factory just 10 days before the Kamala Mills tragedy? In India, public memory is notoriously short, and this amnesia has been a blessing for civic authorities.