THE Park Street blaze, on Tuesday, at the 150-year-old heritage building Stephen Court in which 24 people were charred alive is the third big fire in Kolkata in the last two years.
In 2008, a major portion of Burra Bazar, the city’s biggest wholesale market was destroyed in a fire that affected nearly 2,500 shops and resulted in losses estimated at more than Rs 60 crore. On March 5 this year, over 100 shanties near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass were gutted. The Kolkata Fire Department mentions 200 FIRs of major fire incidents in the last two years, but no action has been initiated against the concerned persons.
The fire incident at Stephen Court is the grim reminder of the fact that Left Front government and Kolkata Municipal Corporation are least bothered about the safety of the city and its people. Their ‘callous and negligent’ approach to strengthen the basic infrastructure and growing needs of the people have been primarily responsible for the death of two-dozen people in the blaze. It also reveals utter lack of required basic fire-fighting mechanism and disaster management infrastructure in the state. The fire department claims that it reached the site within ten minutes, but the fact remains that they were inexcusably ill-equipped. They were aware that the court, where the fire broke out on the fifth and sixth floor, had 280 flats and 400 offices. Surprisingly, it was after one and half hour of the fire that two hydraulic ladders were pressed into operation. If media reports are to be believed, the fire operation lacked coordination and imagination. In fact, the local people were livid over the delayed rescue operation.
The late arrival of the fire tenders was attributed to traffic jam. But the Home Secretary, Mr Ardhendu Sen confessed that the fire headquarters was only half a kilometre away from the site of the fire. The government and civic administration have to realise that the city is expanding, population is increasing, and so they must sit down and formulate a disaster management strategy keeping these factors in view. With a population of around 1.20 crore, how could the government think of coping with fire incidents with just a centralised fire station in Kolkata? The sluggishness of the fire services make it clear that the state over these years has lost work culture and individual initiative. How to explain the absence of senior officers at the site? After the fire the Union Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee said: "The central government had given Rs 16 crore to the state government to buy such ladders in January 2008. In the past 32 years, the CPM-led government could only buy two ladders."
The fire at Stephen Court has also exposed the callous approach of the government towards the maintenance of the heritage buildings in the state. The heritage laws do not allow addition and alteration to the heritage buildings. But in the case of court the top two floors which gutted in the fire, were constructed illegally. This was in fact revealed by City Police Commissioner, Mr Goutam Chakraborty. What was really shocking was the attempt to justify this illegal construction by the top Corporation officials on the plea that they were later regularised! The Kolkata police have arrested two persons. But this is not enough. The government has to have a comprehensive look at the urban planning and management with an eye on the future needs. The Left Front government would have to liberate the city from the clutches of the realtors and lay a strong foundation for future growth. It is surprising in the era of reforms when other metros have geared up to have a complete new look and emerge as vibrant centres for growth, Kolkata is still grappling with the uncertainties of future expansion.
