Fire extinguishers past expiry date at courts complex

Rajneesh Lakhanpal

Our Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 2

Expired fire extinguishers installed at the courts complex as well as the lawyers’ chambers pose a serious threat to the lives of judges, lawyers, litigants and staff.

Raising concern over the lack of fire safety norms, the Council of Engineers today filed a complaint with the office of Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh seeking necessary directions to the authorities concerned, fire-safety audit of the courts complex and the Fire Department of Ludhiana.

Kapil Arora, president of the Council of Engineers, said, “The expired fire extinguishers have not been refilled since 2015. In case of any fire incident, such cylinders will not work properly to douse the flames in time.”

“The fitting of many extinguishers is also found to be missing and these will prove to be dummy only. At the first floor of the courts towards the Feroze Gandhi Market side, no fire safety equipment is installed, which puts question mark on the working of the department concerned of the district courts too. No buckets filled with sand are placed in the building too to douse any fire due to short circuit. Any fire incident in the courts may prove to be disastrous incident just like Surat, Gujarat,” he added.

Kulwant Singh Rai, senior vice-president of the Council of Engineers, said the Deputy Commissioner being the administrative head of Ludhiana should also have reacted immediately and issued directions to the Fire Department to conduct fire-safety audit of the district courts, but no initiative had been taken by him too.

“In a complaint dated 2-7-2019, we have specifically mentioned that the Fire Department at Ludhiana is ill-equipped and hasn’t even procured a single hydraulic ladder to douse fire flames of high-rise buildings in time. Further, the department is not having other safety gears to save the lives of people trapped in the fire incidents too,” he said.

Kapil Arora further said “We have also requested the Sessions Judge with the request for the directions to the Ludhiana DC as well as the Ludhiana Municipal Commissioner to act immediately for conducting the fire-safety audit of the new district courts as well as the lawyers’ chambers. Since the Fire Department is ill-equipped, in a larger public interest, we have further requested for the directions of the fire-safety audit of the Fire Department of Ludhiana too.”