Hyderabad: The Telangana State Fire Services Department (TSFSD) started the process to prosecute four apartment owners on Thursday for failing to provide minimum fire safety measures in their buildings.
Officials believe that as the fines are very lenient, such announcements will force owners to put safety measures in place as soon as they receive the first notice, as being named in public will be taken as a loss of prestige.
The department has a list of 20 buildings public in the last three weeks. The names of the buildings will soon be put up on the department’s Facebook page too, officials said.
Though most of the buildings are old and had been built prior to the amendments to the fire safety laws, officials said that “it is the duty of the owners to ensure safety of the residents and they should put in place whatever measures the best they can”.
Prior to the prosecution, TSFSD had issued two notices and a time of 60 to 90 days to the owners to rectify the shortcomings and put the safety measures in place. It has instituted prosecution of the builders/owners in Hyderabad for failing to provide Fire Safety measures i.e., fire extinguishers, hose reel, wet riser/down comer, yard hydrant, automatic sprinkler system, automatic smoke detector, manually operated fire alarm system, underground fire water sump, overhead fire water tank and fire pumps in their building.
“Prosecution isn’t a new practice. We are announcing the list of prosecutions in public interest. Most of the owners are super rich and get away with small fines and it is the public who suffers. The names of the buildings are being made public, so that people will be cautious when renting these properties out. Once brought to court, owners have to comply,” explained D.G. Rajiv Ratan.
