‘Why was civic chief not suspended for inaction?’

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the state government over the Rajkot game zone fire that killed 27 persons last month, and sought to know why the then chief of the local civic body was not suspended for not taking action against the facility that was being run without permission.

The high court expressed anger after learning that though a demolition notice was served to the TRP Game Zone, where the devastating fire took place on May 25, by the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) in June last year, no action was taken for one year against the facility by the civic body, whose commissioner was Anand Patel at that time.

A special bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai of the high court was hearing a suo motu PIL it had taken up on May 26, a day after the fire accident at TRP Game Zone in Rajkot. During a hearing, it was revealed that no periodic checks were carried out by the RMC’s fire department at the TRP Game Zone and there was no compliance of the safety measures in accordance with the Fire Safety Act.