Usual fire ‘drill’

Ref.: ‘50% hospitals in city have major fire lapses: Minister’ (March 3). We do not learn from the fire accidents that have happened in the past. Was it not the duty and responsibility of BMC authorities who issued licences to these hospitals to ensure that they had complied with fire safety norms? Is the government going to punish those officials who have failed in their duty? It has become a practice to order fire audits after the occurrence of an unfortunate incident. After a fire comes the official announcement of a fire audit and strict implementation of fire safety norms. The public is never told what action has been taken on these orders. When there is another fire, similar orders are issued, the only difference is the minister is different. Thus, things go on forever.

Ravindra Bhagwat