Rajkot fire tragedy: Have no faith in State machinery, says Gujarat High Court

Hearing a suo motu petition on the fire at a gaming zone in Rajkot in which more than 30 people have died, the Gujarat High Court on Monday rapped the State government and the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) saying the court had “no faith in them” and asked the Municipal Commissioner why he should not be held personally responsible for the “man-made disaster”.

The court said the civic body did not bother to check even once when such a giant structure was built and became operational.

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Justice Vaishnav added, “There are media reports that your corporation commissioner went for the inauguration. For 18 months, what did the municipal body do? There was no fire NOC, no structural stability certificate and it was merrily going on, in front of the corporation’s eyes.”

Within hours of the court’s strong remarks, the Gujarat government swung into action and shunted out Municipal Commissioner Anand Patel and Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava. Both have been kept on wait for further posting. D P Desai has been made the new municipal commissioner and Brajesh Kumar Jha has been named the Police Commissioner.

The state government has removed Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Crime) Vidhi Chaudhary and suspended seven officials. The officials have been held responsible for ‘‘gross negligence in allowing the game zone to operate without necessary approvals,” a government statement said.

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Others suspended include Rajkot Municipal Corporation’s town planning department assistant engineer Jaideep Chaudhary, assistant town planner for RMC Gautam Joshi, Rajkot Roads and Buildings department’s deputy executive engineers M.R. Suma and Paras Kothiya, and police inspectors V.R. Patel and N.I. Rathod. The RMC later ordered the suspension of Rohit Vigora, the ‘station officer’ of the RMC’s Kalavad Road fire station.

Though the recreation facility was operating without any fire NOC for a significant time, Vigora, as a station officer, showed gross negligence and irresponsible behaviour by not taking any action against the game zone, which fell under his jurisdiction, the RMC’s suspension order stated.