Bengal begins month-long fire safety awareness campaign
Drive to be undertaken at various malls, hospitals and offices
KOLKATA: Fire safety awareness campaigns will be undertaken at various shopping malls, hospitals, office buildings to make people aware so that fire safety norms are properly followed. The Fire and Emergency Services department will also hold demonstrations in those places.
The department is organising an awareness programme captioned, “Learn Fire Safety, Increase Productivity” at Nandan 4 for the next one month starting from May 5. A month-long awareness campaign has been launched by Fire and Emergency Minister Sujit Bose at Nandan 4 on Thursday. Speaking at the programme, Bose said that a great deal of emphasis has been given on fire safety mechanisms. More than 5,000 fire audits have been done in the state so far. Action will be taken against those who will not comply with the fire safety norms.
Fire audits are performed to take a stock of fire safety arrangements at various hospitals, shopping malls, high rise buildings. Aerial ladder, motorcycle-mounted extinguishers, mobile control room, robotic fire fighting equipment have been introduced in the past 10 years.
High capacity portable pumps have been procured for firefighting specially for dewatering during high floods, cyclones and natural disasters. Effective management carried out by the state Fire and Emergency department has reduced the timeline for issuance of No-objection certificate (NOC) under WBRTPS Act 2013 as mandated under Ease of Doing Business (EODB).
In addition to that, Common Application Form (CAF) has also been introduced within the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Migration from offline to online mode for all services of the department has been completed. Extension of validity of license and NOC from 1-3 years has been made available at a reduced fee.
Hotels, hospitals, school, college, office, market factories need to obtain permission from the department from time to time. The department has also prescribed that exit routes should always be illuminated and free from any obstructions. If there are any fire related issues, the people can directly call at 101 emergency number.