Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G. Kishan Reddy urged the state government to move out the “illegal and unofficial” godowns, warehouses and storerooms outside the city to prevent fire mishaps as they had become a regular feature sending a scare among people living in the residential areas of Secunderabad.
Mr. Reddy, also the local MP, visited the fire mishap site on Minister Road on Friday along with officials and interacted with local people when he noted that they had all spent the night in fear outside their respective homes because of the raging fire and subsequent smoke throughout the day and well into the night.
“The government should look at these frequent fire mishaps and loss of lives seriously as many potential tinder boxes are functioning amidst the residential areas. A comprehensive survey should be undertaken and those found to be functioning without permission should be moved out. Fire safety norms should be applied to other such buildings having valid permits strictly,” he said. He wanted the government to provide temporary accommodation and food to the nearby residents till the burnt building is brought down. Partymen were requested to help the affected families.
Third fire in a year
Former vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Marri Shashidhar Reddy wrote to Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari to inform that it was a third such fire in less than a year in Secunderabad with 11 workers killed in a godown fire at Bhoiguda and eight guests died in a hotel fire under the market police station “but no lessons have been learnt and no serious thinking into ensuring proper guidelines are followed”.
The former Secunderabad MLA noted that the area comes under the constituency represented by Minister for Animal Husbandry and Cinematography T. Srinivas Yadav and urged her to activate the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and order a probe into the mishap by expert for a proper study, document response actions, identify defects and shortcomings for making recommendations for prevention as well as better preparedness. This has to be done in a time bound manner and the steps taken should be in public domain to ensure transparency, he said.
