Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Fire incident is a serious case' that was published in Newsband

Fire incident is a serious case

At least 14 lives were lost in the fire in a Mumbai rooftop restaurant on Thursday night. Recently, in another tragedy in the city, at least 12 migrant labourers were killed in a fire in an industrial area. Who can forget the Uphaar cinema hall fire in New Delhi in 1997 that killed 59 people?

An impartial inquiry is needed into these fire incidents. Those responsible must be prosecuted without leniency. The absence of a strong law of torts accompanied by a slow criminal justice process and rampant bureaucratic and political corruption have contributed to the brazen violation of building norms and a system of special schemes to regularise such death traps for a fee.

We observe that for a few days after such incidents of fire, there will be a debate and people will soon forget them and move on. If no action is taken, nothing will change, and these kind of "accidents" will continue to happen every year all over India.

Safety purpose norms in India is very week and maximum people die in India due to not follow safety norms while in building, driving on road, crossing road. Let the accountability factor is invoked against all violators - Owners, Managers, License Issuers, Inspectors who had not visited for Fire Safety Norms and all corrupt Civic Agency staffs and Officials and let them be combined and be paid to the affected families.

One must realize the value of human lives. Fire accidents are not routine happenings. Bur unfortunately we do not take them seriously. Further, we have this fatalistic mind which says that ‘whatever is going to happen will happen’. Therefore, fire-caused mishaps will continue to happen and lives will continue to be lost. We observe that for a few days after such incidents of fire, there will be a debate and people will soon forget them and move on. Our thinking that “chalta hai yar” is so powerful that we will forget that we do not follow basic safety rules everywhere.

It is mandatory for Municipal Corporation to have first a major accident then only they start the damage control. Damage control like suspending the officers involved who gave the permission to build a hotel overlooking all the norms that are important to make sure that no such incident takes place.

May be there are several such eating houses who must have greased the palms of civic body's officers and they may be next in the line to either collapse or burn to ashes. Human life has no respect in the scheme of things.  It is high point that the government takes this incident seriously and punish both the municipal officers and owners stringently so that the message is loud and clear--you mess around with the law, the law will come after you with full force.