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Fire Brigade ill-equipped to handle major fires in city

BATHINDA: Despite major fire incidents reported in the city in the past one year, the district administration has failed to take fire safety measures in the city as only one fire station is catering to over 3 lakh population of the city.

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Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, June 6

Despite major fire incidents reported in the city in the past one year, the district administration has failed to take fire safety measures in the city as only one fire station is catering to over 3 lakh population of the city.

It seems that the district administration has turned a blind eye toward this and whenever any untoward incident takes place, then administration officials reach the spot to take stock of the situation. Even after that as well no action plan is ever prepared to tackle such situations.

The Fire Department is ill-equipped to handle any major fire as it does not have the adequate equipment to control a fire in buildings having a height of over 40 feet. The city has many high-rise buildings like shopping malls and hotels, which are beyond the reach of fire tenders, as the ladders they have cannot reach these buildings beyond a particular height.

The work of constructing a fire sub-station at ITI Chowk in the city at a cost of Rs 80 lakh has been hanging fire due to paucity of funds for the last few years. The Fire Department has got the land and constructed the boundary wall, but it is waiting for funds to start work on the construction of the building for the fire substation.

The demand for a fire station had been raised by industrialists many years ago as around ITI Chowk, there are many industrial houses located at Industrial Growth Centre, ITI industrial area and the industrial area on the Dabwali road.

In 2011, residents had met then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and urged him to set up a fire station.

The then Deputy CM ordered the authorities concerned to make a proposal in this regard.

The MCB prepared a proposal and sent it to the Industries Department for seeking an NOC as the land on which the station was to be set up belonged to the department.

In 2016, the MCB had received the NOC and it had also figured out the estimated expenditure of Rs 80 lakh, but till date, the work has not been started due to the non-availability of funds.

District Fire Officer Jaswinder Singh said, “We have got the land and have constructed the boundary wall, but we are waiting for the funds to start the construction work of the building of the fire substation.”

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