State gets 11 fire tenders

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Minister for Local Government Navjot Sidhu here today flagged off 11 fire vehicles for different stations in the state.

The tenders left for joining service at Jalandhar, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Dhuri, Sunam, Faridkot, Nabha, Dera Baba Nanak, Raikot and Nakodar.

Eight more will be incorporated in municipal services next week at Jalandhar and Patiala and two each at Ludhiana, Bathinda and Amritsar.

Sidhu said the state — on paper — has 195 vehicles for 52 stations. The minister pointed out that 114 were outdated.

The minister flagged off the first vehicle to Sunam as per the promise he had made to AAP MLA Aman Arora in the Assembly.

The Cabinet will take up the issue of setting up a Fire Services Directorate and enacting the Fire Prevention Act. The state government will observe ‘Fire Extinguishing Service Week’ from April 17 to April 21 every year.

Criticising the previous SAD-BJP government, Sidhu said that out of the grant of Rs90 crore given by the Centre, only Rs17 crore was spent. He said the state had been placed in the ‘Red Zone’ by the Centre for poor services in the fire sector.

One fire tender developed a snag a little distance away from the office of the Local Government and blocked routine traffic for nearly half an hour.

“The machine developed a minor snag, having been driven for more than 1,800 km from Hyderabad,” Sidhu said.