Kolkata: The West Bengal Fire Services Ministry on Tuesday lodged a complaint against the owners of Kolkata's Bagree Market for lacking proper firefighting arrangements and for leasing out bathrooms and staircase areas for storage facility.
The decision was taken – amid protest from the traders - following a devastating fire which engulfed 150-year-old Bagri Market on September 16.
Bagri Market is in Burra Bazar area, which is one of the country’s largest wholesale business centres. Traders claimed that goods worth Rs 200 crore (approx) was gutted.
A case was lodged at Burra Bazar police station against the directors of BagriEstate Pvt. Ltd, including Radha Bagri, Varun Raj Bagri and the Chief Executive Officer of Bagri Estate Krishna Kumar Kothari.
Despite repeated attempts none of the directors of Bagri Estate Pvt. Ltd was available for comments.
During initial probe, the officers found that none of them stay at the addresses they mentioned in the official documents.
“They are not responding to our notice. We are looking for them for further investigation. We found some serious lapses as far as fire safety measures are concerned,” a senior police officer said.
State Fire Services Minister Sovan Chatterjee said, “We will take action against traders in all big markets who are doing business (without any trade licence) by encroaching the footpaths.”
Meanwhile, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to come up with new fire safety rules following the fire incident. As per the new planned rules, owners of the commercial buildings will not be given trade licences if they fail to follow mandatory fire safety norms.
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