Rajkot blaze: ‘Did you fall asleep, why no fire dept NOC?’ HC tears into civic body, govt

The Gujarat High Court on Monday (May 27) came down heavily on the Rajkot Municipal Corporation over gross security lapses at the site of the gaming zone in the city where an inferno claimed 27 lives on Saturday (May 25).

It was found during probe that the gaming zone at Nana-Mava locality was operating for over two years without necessary permits including safety certificates and No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department.

Did you turn a blind eye?: HC asks civic body

Lashing out at the corporation for the lapses, a special bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai said it doesn’t trust the state government anymore, wondering how such a tragedy was allowed to happen despite previous orders of the court.

“This has been going on for two-and-a-half years. Are we to assume you turned a blind eye? What do you and your followers do?” the court admonished officials of the civic authority during the hearing.

In its defence the municipal corporation told the court that the gaming zone did not ask for permission. To this, the court said the corporation was equally responsible to ensure that such gaming zones had proper safeguards including fire safety.

“Even after four years of our order, if no steps were taken in the matter of fire safety, then how is the RMC not responsible?” the court said.

The judges slammed the corporation after they saw photographs of officials at the gaming zone.

“Who were these officers? Did they go there to play?” the court asked.

Don’t trust state government: HC

The court also hauled up the state government asking it if has gone blind to such lapses.

The government had informed the court that fire safety certification hearings have been unresolved for four years now.

"Have you gone blind? Did you fall asleep? Now we do not trust the local system and the state," the court asked.

The state government also informed the court that two other gaming zones in Ahmedabad also do not have the required permissions to operate and that a team investigating the lapses will file a report on the same within 72 hours.

‘Why didn’t gaming zone have fire NOC?’

The high court was enraged when the government informed it that a gaming zone cannot operate without a NOC from the Fire Department.

“Then this rule was not followed in Rajkot,” the court said.

The government, however, assured the bench that three owners of gaming zones flouting rules have been arrested while the process of taking others in custody was underway.

HC’s suo motu cognisance

The Gujarat High Court on Sunday took suo motu cognisance of the fire tragedy, terming it a prima facie "man-made disaster".

The HC noted a stock of highly inflammable materials such as petrol, fibres and fibreglass sheets were stored at the facility.

The state government has formed a Special Investigation Team and also announced an ex gratia of ₹4 lakh to the kin of each deceased.

The central government has also announced an ex gratia of ₹2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased person.

2 held, 6 officials suspended

So far two people have been arrested in regard to the incident while an FIR has been filed against six partners of the gaming zone and another accused.

On Monday, the state government suspended six government officials for “gross negligence” in allowing the gaming zone to operate without the due permissions.