CS expresses serious concern, directs for furnishing ATRs
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 5: Several departments of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have yet not acted upon the recommendations made by the Fire and Emergency Services Organization after fire safety audits of the buildings thereby creating impediments in achieving the objective behind the exercise carried out on the directions of the Lieutenant Governor.
Alarmed over increasing number of fire incidents, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in the month of May this year laid thrust on conducting fire safety audit of the Government buildings particularly of those which are frequently visited by the public for availing different services.
Accordingly, the General Administration Department vide Order No.592 dated May 21, 2022 ordered that Director General, Fire and Emergency Service shall carry out fire safety audit of all Government buildings in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir immediately.
Moreover, all the concerned Administrative Secretaries were directed to take immediate corrective action in light of the fire safety audit reports so furnished to them for preventing occurrence of fire incidents in all buildings of their departments.
Acting swiftly on the directive of the Government, the Fire and Emergency Services Organization conducted fire safety audit of more than 200 Government buildings including all the hospitals, educational institutions and Civil Secretariat at Jammu and Srinagar in a time bound manner. Accordingly, department wise recommendations were made depending upon the nature and size of the structure, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
During the exercise, significant fire hazards were identified, evaluation of the existing control measures was conducted and requirement of additional control measures was determined by the Fire and Emergency Services Organization.
“The objective behind the exercise was to conduct a 360-degree assessment of the building, verify the adequacy of fire protection equipments and their maintenance, verify that the buildings’ construction complies with relevant fire safety regulations and check fire incident preparedness like awareness, training etc”, sources informed.
In the recent high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, the issue of fire safety audit came up for discussion and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department informed that action was still awaited on the comprehensive recommendations of fire audits which were conducted in several Government offices including the Civil Secretariat buildings.
Expressing serious concern over the slackness on the part of the departments in acting on the recommendations made by the Fire and Emergency Services Organization, the Chief Secretary directed the Administrative Secretaries of all such departments to take immediate action on the recommendations and submit Action Taken Reports (ATRs) in the shortest possible time.
Moreover, the Chief Secretary has directed the departments to conduct fresh audits in consultation with the Director General, Fire and Emergency Services so as to ensure that all the preventive measures are put in place well in time, sources informed.
While several Government buildings were found lacking adequate fire safety equipments, in many others there was no proper maintenance of such equipments, sources said quoting some of the observations made by the Fire and Emergency Services Organization, adding it has also been noticed that those who were supposed to handle such equipments in case of any fire incident were never given proper training by the Heads of the Departments although Fire and Emergency Services is ready to extend every possible assistance in this regard.
“By not timely acting on the recommendations made after the fire safety audit of the buildings, the officers of the concerned departments are acting as stumbling block in achieving the objectives behind the detailed exercise carried out by the Fire and Emergency Services Organization on the directive of the Government”, sources said.
As per the experts, each Government building should have adequate means of escape in case of any fire incident and should outline clear pathways to exit doors. Moreover, the buildings are required to have smoke detection systems, conduct regular fire drills, use flame-retardant materials in interiors and keep the building plans handy.
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