Ahmedabad. 27 people died in a fire in a game zone in Rajkot, Gujarat. The High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and started hearing on the case. The Gujarat High Court on Thursday reprimanded the state government over the fire incident in the game zone of Rajkot. 27 people died in this accident last month. The High Court wanted to know why the then head of the local municipal body was not suspended for not taking action against the TRP game zone being operated without permission.
The Gujarat High Court expressed displeasure after learning that TRP Game Zone was given a notice by Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) in June last year, but no action was taken against it by the Municipal Corporation for a year. Anand Patel was the Commissioner of the Corporation at that time. A fire broke out in the TRP Game Zone on May 25. A special bench of High Court Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Devan Desai was hearing a PIL in the case of fire in TRP Game Zone of Rajkot.
Horrible accident in Rajkot, 25 people died in fire in game zone
RMC counsel GH Virk filed an affidavit during the hearing on Thursday and told the court that no inspection was done by the RMC fire department in the TRP game zone and safety measures were not followed as per the Fire Safety Act. During the hearing, it was also revealed that the owners of the game zone never applied for a fire safety no objection certificate and this game zone was being operated without any police permission, which is mandatory under Section 33 (W) of the Gujarat Police Act. The court was also told that the town planning department of RMC was aware of this illegal structure and a notice was issued to demolish it in June 2023. Earlier in April 2023, a notice was also given to remove the unauthorized construction under the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act.
Why was the city commissioner not suspended?
Justice Vaishnav said, ‘You fired the town planning officer, but why was the then municipal commissioner not suspended? The responsibility lies with the top officials. In June 2023, an order was passed to demolish the structure. What happened after that? You sat in peace till 27 people lost their lives. You did nothing for a year.’ He asked why Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) should not be imposed against IAS officer Patel, who was the commissioner at the time of the incident and was then transferred by the state government without any deployment.
The Municipal Corporation’s reply
In defence of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation, Virk told the bench that Patel was not aware of the unauthorised structure. Gujarat Advocate General Kamal Trivedi assured the bench that action will be taken after the state government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) submits its final report. Trivedi said the SIT has been given a deadline of June 20 to submit its report. When Justice Vaishnav asked if the state government intends to fix the responsibility of senior officials in such situations, Trivedi said the government is awaiting the SIT report for further action. The bench fixed June 13 as the next date of hearing in the case.
Tags: Gujarat news, National News, Rajkot News
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 6, 2024, 19:31 IST