The fire at Tilak Nagar's Sargam society has pushed the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to carry out a fire audit of every city building under. In the last week of December, A fire in a building on MHADA land in Tilak Nagar led to the death of five people. After the significant uproar, the MHADA asked its senior officials to carry out a detailed inquiry of the tragic incident and submit a report. The report is expected to be submitted on Tuesday. However, sources said that the MHADA did find major loopholes with regard to the building's administration and will, therefore, carry out fire audits of every building on its layout. According to one of the officials, who was part of the inquiry team, the door to the refuge area of the Tilak Nagar building was locked and sprinklers were not connected.
Deepender Singh Khuswaha, chief officer of the Mumbai Board, confirmed that fire audits of all the buildings on the MHADA layout have been ordered by the authority. "The inquiry report on the fire incident at Sargam society will reach me by Tuesday. Meanwhile, officials have been asked to conduct fire audits of every building on the MHADA layout," he said.
According to MHADA officials, the buildings concerned will be given a month's time to fulfil every criterion under the fire brigade's No Objection Certificate (NOC) norms and only after that, they will be awarded an Occupation Certificate.
One of the officials, who prepared the report for Sargam society, said, "We have prepared a two-page-long report with details on loopholes in the building. The refuge area of the building was locked and the sprinklers were not connected."
Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), claimed that 99 per cent societies in the city suffer from the same problem. "Most societies lock the terrace, refuge area, and block the stairway with unwanted stuff. They fear that someone might misuse these areas. It is illegal to do so and we have told many societies that they are making a fire trap for themselves," Prabhu said.
