A late night fire in a roof-top restaurant in Mumbai killed 14 people.
This calls for a thorough probe and stricter enforcement of safety regulations.
How can such situations be dealt?
Current Case - Ensuring the accountability of owners, managers, and agencies concerned and punishing for those guilty should be a high priority.
It would be wrong to categorise deliberate acts as instances of mere negligence as there seems to be intentional safety violations.
Further, immediate monetary compensation and other forms of support is to be provided to the families of the dead and the injured.
Holistic picture - While the rooftop restaurant fire killed 14 people, a week earlier 12 people were killed in an industrial fire accident.
Increasing frequency of such incidences is proving to become a catastrophe and enhancing the safety of building is now a pressing compulsion.
A full-fledged crackdown is hence needed to determine all building safety violations in Mumbai and official connivances needs to be penalised.
What are the expectations from the trial?
A professional analysis of fire tragedies involves assessing whether:
Possibility of igniting was actively reduced
Provision was made for controlling the spread of fire and smoke
Design was compatible for occupant escape and fire-fighter access
Structure was potent to avoid a collapse
Hence, the Maharashtra government must ensure that its inquiry captures all these parameters and that the subsequent judicial process is not prolonged.
Ensuring a robust prosecution and invoking stringent provisions against the guilty are important to win people’s trust in the state machinery.
What are the troubling realities?
The absence of strong laws, accompanied by slow criminal justice processes has made a mockery of justice.
Rampant bureaucratic and political corruption has also contributed to the brazen violation of building norms.
Sadly, a system of special schemes to regularise buildings with such violations for a fee is also noticeable, which is tantamount to legalising death traps.
Also, many court orders issued to ensure public safety remain mostly on paper.
On the whole, these issues have to be dealt with in its entirety to ensure a safer nation with reduced risks from manmade tragedies.
