The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) noted that the BMC's fire department did not conduct periodic inspections of high-rise and dilapidated buildings, leading to major fire accidents during 2010-15 and loss of lives and property.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) noted that the BMC's fire department did not conduct periodic inspections of high-rise and dilapidated buildings, leading to major fire accidents during 2010-15 and loss of lives and property.
These incidents include the fire in the state administrative headquarters of Mantralaya and Gokul Niwas tragedy, where four fire brigade officials lost their lives fighting the blaze in 2015. The CAG's audit report (Local Bodies) for the year ended March 31, 2015, was tabled in the state legislature on Friday.
"The state government may carry out vulnerability analysis of all the densely populated, important and hazardous locations in the state and increase awareness amongst the people regarding do's and don'ts in fire incidents, and... monitoring of Form-A and Form-B certificates issued by the licensed agencies should be made more effective to ensure compliance to fire prevention and life safety measures in buildings and premises," the report recommended.
It said that during 2010-15, 12 major fire accidents (also termed 'brigade fire calls' where 20 or more fire tenders are deployed for fire-fighting) occurred in the BMC's jurisdictional area.
"Fire prevention and control measures taken up by the Fire Departments of eight selected Municipal Corporations (namely, BMC, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur) were not satisfactory.
The eight Municipal Corporations could spend only 22 per cent of their capital budget during 2010-15 which was meant to be utilized for purchase of specialized fire appliances, equipment, vehicles, among others," the CAG said.
"The fire stations were also grossly under-equipped and deficient in basic infrastructure such as, land, permanent building, drill towers, water sources, fire hydrants, fire tenders, specialized fire appliances etc. There was significant shortage of key personnel in the fire departments in the state as well as in eight municipal corporations. Many buildings and hazardous premises such as petrol pumps, LPG stations, fire cracker shops, saw mills etc. in the local area jurisdiction of the eight municipal corporations were operating without final fire NOC from the fire departments. There was significant shortfall in imparting training to fire personnel during 2010-15 and construction of an advance fire training academy was pending even after a lapse of more than seven years from the date the proposal was first mooted. There were deficiencies in documenting fire investigation reports by the Chief Fire Officers," the report noted.
"The fire department of municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai did not conduct periodical inspections of high-rise and dilapidated buildings leading to major fire accidents in Mumbai during 2010-15 and loss of lives and property," the CAG said.
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