Civic bodies turn blind eye to office flouting fire norms

GURGAON: With civic authorities turning a blind eye, the local subsidiary of a US multinational has been running its operations from a building in central Gurgaon for the last seven years without a fire safety clearance, according to documents reviewed by Hindustan Times.

A recent spate of fire incidents in the National Capital Region does not seem to have had any effect on the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and fire department officials, both of whom have in the past inspected offices of Hughes Communication India Limited (HCIL), the largest satellite service operator in the country, running from 1, Electronic City, Sector-18, Gurgaon, and discovered serious non-compoundable violations that cannot be excused.

HCIL is a majority-owned subsidiary of US-based Hughes Network Systems LLC. “We had withdrawn the fire no objection certificate in the year 2013,” said Isham Singh Kashyap, district fire officer, Gurgaon. “Though the building has fire safety equipment, there is a violation as it does not have the fire safety certificate and if any mishap takes place who will take the responsibility? We will take action as per the court orders.”

The fire safety issue is subsidiary to a dispute over the lease that is currently before the courts.

V Umashankar, the chief executive officer of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and former commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG), said, “We will perform our legal obligations without getting involved in a private property dispute.”

In October 2014, MCG told Punjab and Haryana high court that several people would perish in case of a fire in the building, which it said poses grave danger to all surrounding buildings. HTC