'Govt must take steps now'

As the visuals of the terrible fire in a Kolkata hospital were beamed on TV, Bangaloreans are reminded of the tragedy the city went through during the Carlton Towers fire in February 2009, which exposed the unpreparedness of the city to tackle fire accident resulting in the loss of many lives.

The Kolkata tragedy should be a wake-up call for the civic and fire services agencies in Bangalore and I urge the BBMP to take immediate steps to inspect to ensure compliance of fire safety rules by high-rise buildings, especially in hospitals, schools, colleges, government offices and buildings frequented by the public.

The fire services department must conduct surprise checks to ensure the fire-fighting equipment in high-rise buildings are in working condition. The Namma Bengaluru Foundation supported Beyond Carlton’s PIL in the Karnataka high court, and it resulted in the BBMP forming guidelines for fire safety in high-rise buildings in Bangalore and the government notified it in July 2011. It is important that the BBMP must not lose sight of safety guidelines and ensure thorough compliance to prevent loss of lives or loss of property.

The fire in AMRI shows the institutional collapse in cities all over India.

People will continue to die as a direct consequence of negligence by governments and due to absence of regulation of public safety. This is because programmes like JNNURM are supposed to revitalise and reform governments but have become taxpayer-funded spending programmes with no outcomes or objectives.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and convener, ABIDe