The West Bengal government has set up an 11-member committee to inquire into all aspects of the devastating fire that broke out in Stephen Court here on Park Street on March 23 which so far has claimed 43 lives.
Announcing this on Monday, the State's Chief Secretary, Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said that the committee, led by former Chief Secretary, S.N. Roy, would submit its report to the State government within three months.
“We expect the committee to start work immediately,” he said.
Besides ascertaining the cause of the fire and determining whether there was any “negligence and act of carelessness” on the part of the landlord and tenants of the building as well as looking into “the state of preparedness” of the agencies concerned “in preventing the spread of fire,” the panel would be expected to come up with prescriptions “on how to make safer” multi-storeyed buildings in the city.
