Most illegal construction and unauthorized slums are prone to fire due to safety standards missing in those areas. Nine innocent lives were lost when a fire gutted a Juhu Galli medical store and homes above the pharmacy. The pharmacy too did not have the license from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and neither from the civic body’s health department which poses serious question mark on the safety aspect of such pharmacies.
Most buildings in our country in general and Mumbai in particular are given ‘Completion Certificate’ (CC) without proper work completion by corrupt officers by accepting bribes. People should not be penny wise and pound foolish as such irregularities lead to loss of innocent lives during such mishaps. The government needs to tighten its laws so that safety standards meet the required criteria to avoid these mishaps in future. Also, we need many more fire stations of latest technology and equipment so that loss both in terms of ‘lives’ and properties can be minimized during such mishaps in future!
S.N. Kabra
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
