Blaze destroys 400 shops in Kolkata
KOLKATA: A massive fire that erupted in a building in Kolkata’s Bargi Market during the wee hours of Sunday and gutted more than 400 shops broke out two months after the six-storey structure received a safety clearance, officials familiar with the matter said.
The fire continued to rage on at the time of filing this report even as 35 tenders were pressed into service in an attempt to douse it .
“The clearance was granted on the condition that the building authorities will put in place adequate fire-safety arrangements within a month. It now seems that no steps were taken in this regard,” said an official of the state fire services department on the condition of anonymity.
The Opposition was quick to target the fire services department and the state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government over the alleged negligence in handing out safety clearance. “Almost all the buildings in the area lack proper fire safety measures and the state fire services minister is silent on this,” said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s state chief Dilip Ghosh. However, state fire services minister and Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee said there was “no lapse” on their part as they had “hauled up the building authorities earlier and cautioned them”.
Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury trained his guns on chief minister Mamata Banerjee, stating: “The CM dreams of turning Kolkata into London but the fire department has failed to ensure that buildings implement safety measures...”