Kolkata, Aug 23 (IANS) Amid two hotel fire incidents in West Bengal last week, first at Tarapith in Birbhum district and second at Mirza Ghalib Street in West Bengal, which claimed 18 lives (nine in each case), the state government has started the exercise of reviewing and correcting the internal flaws in granting licences to hotels, lodges and guesthouses.
An insider from the State Fire Services Department pointed out that during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime, a policy decision was taken to decentralise the system of granting two crucial permissions, namely “fire safety certificates” and “fire licences”.
“During that phase, two crucial policy decisions were implemented by the previous system reportedly to accelerate the pace of granting licences. First, a system of self-declaration from the owners of such hotels, lodges and guesthouses was introduced. Secondly, the station officers of different fire service stations were granted the authority to grant the fire safety certificates and the fire licences to the owners of such hospitality entities submitting self-declarations,” pointed out the official.
Once these two most crucial certificates were granted, he pointed out, the next two steps of getting the trade licences from the concerned civic bodies and subsequently getting electricity connections from the power distribution companies were comparatively easier.
“By virtue of fire safety certificates and fire licences received from the station officers, the owners of such hospitality entities managed to get trade licences and electricity connections easily without virtually any sort of cross-checks either by the civic bodies or by the power generation companies,” the official said.
Now, after the two consecutive fire incidents, first at Tarapith and then at Kolkata, these flaws in the entire chain of granting different licences are evident, and hence the new state government is planning to bring some policy changes.
According to the state fire services officer, the main idea behind the proposed policy changes is to introduce multi-level checks in the entire chain of licences.
“The first policy change that is being considered is to end the system of absolute authority for the station officers to grant the two most crucial permissions of fire safety certificates and fire licences. Instead, these two certificates should be granted after two-stage checks, first at the level of station officers and subsequently by one or two levels above that,” the departmental insider pointed out.
He also explained the difference between fire safety certificates and fire licences.
While a fire safety certificate, also referred to as Fire NOC, is a document confirming that a building or physical structure meets local fire safety codes and architecture rules, a fire licence is a formal operational permit issued for specific commercial activities or industrial processes.
Secondly, the department officer pointed out that a proposal is also being considered to end the system of virtually automatic granting of trade licences by the concerned civic bodies and electricity connections by the power distribution companies on the basis of fire safety certificates and fire licences.
The proposal is that the concerned civic authorities and power distribution companies should also conduct thorough checks before granting trade licences and electricity connections, to reduce the possibility of such hospitality entities running their shops ignoring the safety aspects.
–IANS
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