State Fire department eyes augmentation plan for Puja

The Fire and Emergency Services department has laid special emphasis on augmenting its fire-fighting mechanism by almost trebling the number of temporary fire stations and at the same time creating awareness among the common people during the Durga Puja.

The leave of all officials and field-level workers of the department will remain cancelled during the Puja days. “We have 157 fire stations across the state. In connection with Durga Puja, we are setting up 100 temporary fire stations across the state to ensure prompt intervention in case of a fire. Last year, there were 38 temporary fire stations. The department will also set up kiosks on fire awareness in more than 24 Puja pandals in the city and suburbs, including Siliguri. The pujas that have been identified have the history of having heavy footfall of pandal hoppers,” Sujit Bose, state Fire and Emergency Services minister said.

Bose held a meeting with senior officials and district fire officers and gave necessary directions like keeping liaison with the local police station for effective fire-fighting operation. Additional Chief Secretary of the department Manoj Agarwal, DG (Fire) Ranveer Kumar and other senior officials were present.

Senior officials will be on the road from October 18 (Chaturthi) and will be visiting different puja pandals till the day of the Durga Puja carnival in the city along with police to keep an eye on whether the basic fire safety measures are in place in the Puja pandals.

The legal hurdles in connection with recruitment of 1259 fire operators have been cleared and presently their training is going on. The minister said that these fire operators will join the existing team of 7500 manpower during Durga Puja.