‘Societies don’t maintain fire-safety equipment’

The major fire that broke out at the HDIL towers on Thursday has raised many questions regarding the fire safety norms in high risers and more importantly its implementation.

The urban planning experts, legal advisors and activists have a lot to say to the developers as well as the residents of these high risers.

Chandrashekhar Prabhu, one of the prominent urban planning experts, has been vocal about the issue of safety norms for sometime now.

“There is nothing like a fire-proof building. The fire safety norms are in place, so that people can evacuate the building immediately. But it has been observed that at many places, the smoke detectors, sprinklers etc. do not function properly.

The developer installs these things to get the occupation certificate, and once gotten the maintenance part is conveniently forgotten,” said Prabhu.

He adds that dealing with any unforeseen accidents is not the priority while constructing a structure.

“Forget about the tragedy, I would say, even the convenience of people is rarely considered. What is being considered most of the time is the FSI factor. More the FSI, more the people coming in and more the number of cars. Even the parking space factor is rarely considered,” he said, adding that nowadays development is considered with FSI being the center point and not the citizens.

According to legal experts, the developers who have to submit a number of no objection certificates (NOC) to the various departments are also liable to undergo a legal trial and can be booked under stringent IPC laws.

“If something goes wrong and it leads to someone’s death or serious injury, the developer can be booked under IPC laws, adding to which s/he can also be booked for violation of BMC guidelines,” said Adv Nilesh Pawaskar. He adds that it’s mandatory for the builder to pay compensation for any casualties.

However, according to consumer rights protection activists, it is developers’ as well as consumers’ duty to keep a track of all the necessary safety arrangements.

“Once the developer transfers the tower to a society, the society should see that everything is in place. And in case of commercial complexes the companies are also equally responsible for keeping everything updated,” said Adv Arun Jagtap, a consumer rights protection activist.

He also mentioned that, it is the duty of the fire brigade department to keep a regular check on the fire safety norms.