Vigil stepped up at Dehra Dun malls

Vigilance follows tragedy. On the heels of a Vishal Megamart mall getting burnt down in a fire in Meerut, the district authorities in Dehra Dun have started surprise checks at malls and shopping centres, creating a flutter in the business community.

A high-level team of district officials visited the Vishal Megamart here and found certain anomalies in the fire-fighting arrangements. A fine of Rs 5,000 has been imposed on the Vishal Megamart in this regard.

The officials found that log of woods, along with some drums of diesel, was kept at the basement of the Vishal Megamart, which they thought could cause untoward incidents.

A separate show-cause notice has also been served to owners of Meadow Shopping Plaza at Rajpur Road with the authorities threatening to seize the premises.

"We have found that the fire-fight arrangements in these shopping malls and business centres were not up to the prescribed standards," said Dehra Dun District Magistrate Punit Kansal.

Meanwhile, the district administration has taken a strong exception to the decision of the Mussoorie-Dehra Dun Development Authority (MMDA) and the state police for giving NOCs to these erring shopping plazas.

In most of the shopping centres, the administration has found that there are not proper parking facilities which cause inconvenience to the vehicular traffic as well as people traveling on the roads.

"We have warned all these shopping centres that they should have proper exit systems, fire-fighting arrangements and parking facilities," said Kansal.