Both these institutions in the Summer Capital of the UT Jammu and Kashmir are no less important both from the point of purpose as well frequented by the public including the VIPs but it is surprising that there is no fool proof fire fighting mechanism in the building complexes . Call it recklessness of the authorities or mere providence that until now the pinch of its absence could not be fortunately felt but that hardly justifies that there should be no proper fire and allied security audits regularly and that there should be no proper fire fighting arrangements .
See the ‘wisdom’ of the administration that along with files and papers , even 25 Advanced Fire Technology (AFT) sprays installed by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services are transported to Jammu as part of the half yearly Darbar move and again brought back and vice versa. In both the cases , either of the complexes in the other part of the UT remains vulnerable to the hazards of fire.
In other words, there is no inbuilt system of fire fighting mechanism and only ‘Kaam Chalao’ syndrome works by relying upon spays otherwise meant for minor incidents , not major ones. Another colossal loss or non-utilisation of fixtures bought with public money can be seen in hundreds of fire extinguishers having been procured but not utilized as they remain not refilled . Added to the confusion is that the Secretariat complex is without any source of water stored enough to meet with an eventuality . We urge the authorities to look into the issue urgently looking to its sensitivity being related to security and safety aspect of life and property.
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