Following a tragic hotel fire, a high-level disaster management meeting exposed major staffing vacancies and zero accountability in enforcing citywide fire safety notices.
Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday suggested that former Agniveers – Army personnel retired after four years of service – could be inducted to meet the manpower shortage faced by the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) and increase the number of fire stations across the city to improve emergency response time.
The directions were given at a high-level meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) chaired by the LG. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and her ministers, Ashish Sood and Parvesh Sahib Singh.
The meeting, which comes days after a blaze at a B&B in Malviya Nagar claimed 22 lives, undertook a comprehensive review of ongoing anti-encroachment drive against illegal buildings, misuse of licences related to fire safety, and future disaster preparedness.
