Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 29: Despite Jammu and Kashmir falling in earthquakes prone seismic zone 4 and 5, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services is ill-prepared for disaster management due to shortage of man power while absence of a Fire Act in the State makes the enforcement body a toothless tiger.
More than one third of the posts in the Department of Fire and Emergency Service are lying vacant and majority of the Fire Stations in J&K are being manned by inadequate staff, official sources informed the Excelsior.
As per Standing Fire Advisory Council of India (SFAC), a station must have a strength of 25 people including two drivers for each vehicle but only six to seven person and one driver are found posted in D category stations with one Fire tender, across the State, sources added.
While elaborating, sources informed that out of total 3585 positions in the Department, 1235 are presently lying vacant while only 150 drivers are available for more than 100 Water Tenders, Quick Response Vehicles and Multipurpose Fire Tenders.
Out of these 1235 vacancies, 1040 were advertised for fresh recruitment in March 2013 by the Department Recruitment Board. Nearly 67865 candidates had applied for these positions and 14265 of them qualified the screening test after which a written test was held on August 16-17, 2014. However, even after shortlisting of the candidates, the Department did not conduct the interviews for final selection with the result that these vacancies are still lying unfilled.
As the number of vacancies has been continuously increasing since 2009 with the retirement of more employees from services, the Department has been suffering from shortage of manpower.
Moreover, no Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting has been convened for the last more than two years. Usually DPC is convened after every six months to fill the promotional quota vacancies. There are 165 vacant posts and 22 deputational vacancies in the Department, which are to be filled through DPC.
Further, in absence of the Fire Act, the J&K Fire and Emergency Services Department becomes a toothless tiger when it comes to enforce the fire safety guidelines for commercial establishments like hotels, cinema halls, shopping complexes, etc.
The Department has been issuing only necessary recommendations with regard to the fire protection and fire safety measures before construction of the big commercial buildings “As on date, there is no stringent enforcement of Fire Act and therefore the office issues only technical recommendations regarding fire safety measures, that too only after someone voluntarily approaches the department for the same, official sources informed.
Even as the Department has prepared a Fire Act Legislation which has been sent to the Government for the approval, no further action on the same has yet been initiated for the last one year. As per the proposed Act, sources informed, the common masses will be bound to adopt the fire safety measures and it will also give the Department powers to force people to adopt the same. The proposed Act contains all the bye laws including maintenance of fire gap between constructions and installation of all the fire fighting equipment in every kind of building, sources added.
When contacted, Director General Fire and Emergency Services, RS Sodhi claimed that the Department was well prepared for disaster management with its available staff and strength. “As far as fresh recruitment is concerned, the Administrative Department and State Government are examining the matter and I have nothing to say about that,” he added.
Regarding the proposed Fire Act, Mr Sodhi informed that the Law Department was dealing with the bill, which was under active consideration of the Government and might be passed by the Assembly in the forthcoming session.
Follow our WhatsApp channel