Fire safety: Ggn hospitals asked to fall in line

Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram Vinay Pratap Singh has issued a strong warning to the hospitals and clinics that are operating without the fire safety clearance from the fire department.

He has also given a deadline to the erring medical institutions in the city to obtain the NOC within two weeks failing which their licences will be cancelled.

The strong reaction from the Deputy Commissioner comes two weeks after a massive fire accident that engulfed a private hospital in the city.

Though no casualty was reported, over 40 patients that were present in the ICU and the children ward were at risk because of the fire incident.

It was later known that the hospital did not have the proper fire equipment to deal with the crisis.

According to official estimates, there are over three hundred hospitals and clinics that are operating in the city. Most of these are believed to have not renewed their fire licences. Shockingly, the two public hospitals that are situated at Sadar Bazaar and Sector-10 also do not possess the NOC as officials from the fire department have observed several discrepancies on fire safety procedures in these hospitals.

According to law, it is mandated that any building that is 15 metres in height must renew their NOC on fire safety every year yet most of the public buildings do not adhere by the rules.

In April this year, the fire department had issued more than 200 notices to the high rises that did had not renewed their NOC on fire safety for years.