Cong councillor moves resolution in SMDC House on fire safety at malls, hotels

A Congress councillor Tuesday moved a private member resolution in the BJP-led SDMC House seeking "fixing of responsibilities" in case of a fire at malls and hotels in south Delhi.

The resolution was moved by Andrews Ganj councillor Abhishek Dutt, who said, the resolution also entails checking compliance of civic norms in such establishments.

The resolution was "referred to the municipal commissioner" by the House of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, a spokesperson of the SDMC said.

The move comes days after a devastating fire at a coaching complex in in Surat in which 20 students were killed.

"We wait for incidents like the Surat tragedy to wake up. But, we should be prop-active as a civic body and compliance of civic norms at plush malls, pubs, restaurants and hotels, guest houses should be assessed as many of these establishments operate rooftop kitchens," Dutt said after the House session.

The SDMC is the licence issuing authority and therefore, "responsibilities should be fixed" to deter any lapse in norms, so that such fire incidents do not occur here.

"The authorities should be regularly conducting inspections to assess compliance of norms and not waiting for a disaster," he said.

"So, the resolution seeks fixing of responsibilities to officials concerned in connection with the compliance or non-compliance of norms by malls, pubs, restaurants, hotels, guest houses, to avoid such incidents in future " the Congress councillor said.

This was the first House after the mayoral poll in April, and at times it witnessed heated exchanges between the ruling and opposition sides.

During the proceedings, Congress councillor Ved Pal made a remark ,alleging, "BJP came back to power at Centre without doing anything, which is not an easy thing".

This triggered strong protests from BJP councillors, and, one of them, also taunted Congress councillors, saying, "You have one fool in your party which is enough", without naming anyone.

"The councillor later realised, the remark was not fine, and said sorry," he said.