The officer from the state fire department, Jagjivan Ram, said that the hospital where a massive fire broke in early on Saturday killing five persons did not have a fire safety clearance. He said that all hospitals and health hubs in the state are mandated to conduct fire audits and reviews every year and take the clearance from the fire department or the stakeholder concerned locally ironically not many take it seriously. Ram lamented that "only when some incidents occur everyone talks about fire clearance and safety technically establishments like hospitals must apply for fire audit or noc with us based on which we provide them suggestions after field inspections to make the entities fireproof post compliances the noc is given to them which is valid for a year." He explained that the state home department under which the fire department comes is now working on a single window interface to will keep them updated about the establishments whose fire noc is about to lapse or those which don't have it for timely action. If all goes well in another 10 to 12 days it will be operational once it happens. Ram said that the fire department on its own doesn't have the powers for a crackdown on any establishment for the lack of firesafety equipment or the noc.
