3 weeks later, KU yet to take fire safety measures

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Srinagar, Mar 15: Three weeks since the Zabarwan Guest was damaged in a fire, authorities at the University of Kashmir (KU) are yet to take any fire safety preventive measures.
On February 23, a major portion of varsity’s Zabarwan Guest House at Naseem Bagh was damaged in the fire caused by short circuit.
Subsequently, a high-level committee was constituted to make specific recommendations on how to prevent similar incidents in future and improve fire safety in the campus.
The committee, headed by Professor Mohammad Sultan Bhat, had been asked to submit its recommendations within a week.
However, the committee is yet to submit its recommendations.
Bhat said, “It is tedious job to do fire safety audit of the whole campus.”
“We have requested the authorities to extend the date. It will take four more weeks to draft the report,” he told The Kashmir Monitor.
“We have not classified any building vulnerable to fire so far. For this, we may require the services of the officials from the Fire Services Department.”
The committee head said, “We have requested the Fire Services Department, but haven’t got a response yet. We will take the initiative once we get a reply from them.”
Deputy Director Fire and Emergency Service Department (FE&S), Mohammad Akbar Dar, however, contradicted his statement.
He said, “There has been no communication between them and university authorities since the committee was constituted.”
“No meeting was held after that. They always engage in hollow talks and never really take any pains to put in place the proper fire safety measures.”
“If the audit is ignored this time as well, I am afraid the whole campus will have to bear the brunt of it.”
A senior official at university said that most of the departments and buildings don’t have any fire safety equipment.
“Varsity doesn’t have any basic fire preventive measures in place, putting the lives of the students and the teachers at risk,” he said.
In the last one decade, several fire incidents have taken place in the campus, the one in the boys’ hostel being the major among them: in 2009, Sheikh-ul-Alam Boys Hostel, one of the oldest buildings in the University of Kashmir, was gutted in the fire.
The recent fire incidents include the barrack outside the Fine Arts Department and the famed café coffee day at Naseem Bagh.

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