UHRF draws attention of top political leaders on fire safety

New Delhi: Alarmed over the growing cases of fire accidents and deaths due to fire tragedies, United Human Rights Federation (UHRF), a civil society group working in the field of fire safety and prevention, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi to put fire safety in top priority in their agenda of governance.

"Stressing on fire safety is the need of the hour and it is incumbent on our part to take action with a sense of urgency. Violating the fire safety laws is one of the major cause of fire accidents in India whereas every building in the country needs to comply with the National Building Code, 2016," the letter read.

"Supreme Court at several occasions has also observed in various hearings and in their judgments about non-implementation of fire safety rules properly in the buildings which result in lots of fire accidents and loss of lives and properties. So it is necessary that the fire and life safety guidelines should be strictly followed as per the norms," UHFR said in its letter. "We have written to Modi, Shah and Gandhi to bring a strong national law to prevent fire tragedies. No political parties have so far shown a strong will to bring stringent laws despite the Supreme Court's directions in this connection. Unfortunately, the important issue of fire safety and prevention has never figured in election manifestos of any political party," said UHRF secretary Arun Pal.