No act to regulate fire safety in hospitals

PUDUCHERRY: Fire safety of hospital buildings  has gone unregulated in Puducherry in the absence of Fire Prevention and Safety Act in the Union territory.  So far no attention has been paid to fire safety of buildings as there has been no mandatory requirement for approval on fire safety by the fire department. In procedure, the Pondicherry Planning Authority (PPA) which is responsible for building approvals, sends the building plan to the fire department, for giving an occupancy certificate. Unfortunately, that remains only on paper, as no hospital bothers about it.The recommendations made by the fire services  based on certain general safety specifications with regard to design alteration and installation of fire fighting devices before giving occupancy certificate, have not been complied with till date.  “Except the newly constructed Rajiv Gandhi Women and Children Hospital which had obtained occupancy certificate, no one has come back after complying with the recommendations made by the department for obtaining the occupancy certificate in the recent past, said Balla  Kristayya, Divisional Fire Officer (DFO), on Wednesday. He added that some hospitals here had started functioning without the occupancy certificate.  After the tragedy in Kolkata, the fire services department had woken up and sought a list of all government and private hospitals in the Union territory.Thereafter a committee would be constituted by the fire services and it would inspect the hospitals  with regard to fire safety. It would also give notices to hospitals which did  not comply with fire safety standards, said the official. However, enforcement remains a far cry till the department is empowered by the legislation. A draft bill is being prepared for the enactment of fire prevention and safety Act (National building code of India, 2005. part 4 fire and life safety-2005). This would be sent to law department for vetting  and thereafter for cabinet approval.In fact, the status of hospital buildings with regard to fire safety remains practically unknown. There are seven  private medical colleges, most of them serving the rural areas, but no one in the administration seems to be  aware of the status of fire safety and the government hospitals  are not any better.Except for the Rajiv Gandhi hospital, none of the hospitals are equipped with modern fire fighting equipment. Even the Indira Gandhi Government general Hospital and Post-Graduate  Institution (IGGHPGI), where the main chunk of patients not only from Puducherry but also from neighbouring districts of  Tamil Nadu are treated, is in the same boat. A good part of the hospital is housed in a building which is more than 50 years old and obviously does not meet the fire safety requirements. However, the IGGHPGI is equipped with a rapid response system, which has functioned efficiently.  On the other hand, some of the Primary Health Centres (PHC) lack fire extinguishers. The department has set the ball rolling for acquiring the fire extinguishers, said the director of health and family welfare Dr K V Raman. The department is reviewing  the require