Govt plans to relieve Fire Service of inspection, issuing NOC tasks

New Delhi: The Delhi government is planning to relieve the Delhi Fire Service of the responsibilities of carrying out inspections and issuing NOCs to let them focus on their core job — firefighting, officials said on Friday.

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, along with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, chaired a high-level meeting on June 30 to review the status and progress of various aspects related to the flagship schemes, ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Maximum Governance - Minimum Government’, during which he issued a slew of directions, officials added.

One of them pertained to easing the workload of Delhi Fire Service.

The Delhi government recently simplified the licensing process by exempting swimming pools, eating houses, hotels, motels, guest houses, discotheques, video game parlours, amusement parks and auditoriums from the need for licences by the Delhi Police, to allow the force to focus on issues related to law and order in the national capital.

“On similar lines, we are planning to simplify the job for the Delhi Fire Service by taking away the job of inspections and issuing NOCs.

Carrying out inspections is a municipal job. We are discussing and working on a proposal for it. There is no qualitative work involved in inspections,” said an official.

The government is examining whether it can rope in a third party to conduct inspections and issue NOCs or transfer the job to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.