Dr Hyma Moorty

Major man-made fire disasters—ranging from industrial accidents and city-wide bombings to catastrophic infrastructure failures have claimed several precious lives.

The Uphaar cinema tragedy was one of the worst fire disasters in recent Indian history. The fire started in the parking lot during the matinee screening of the movie ‘Border’ on June 13, 1977. Approximately, 59 people died of asphyxiation and 103 were seriously injured in the subsequent stampede. There is no record of how many succumbed eventually. The result was that one of the Ansal brothers (The hall’s promoters) was sentenced to two years in jail. Justice delivered for so many deaths? This is the result of a 24-year legal battle fought by two grieving parents.

Seven newborns died and 12 were rescued following a fire at the baby care wing in New Born Hospital in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar. A massive fire broke out at the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot, claiming 33 lives, including nine under-16 children. Foreign nationals were among the 21 people who died in a blaze that ripped through a hotel in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar on June 3. At least 47 people were pulled out of the inferno and taken to nearby hospitals but how many of them will walk out of the hospitals remains uncertain.

Tragically, most fire tragedies in the country happen either when greed takes over safety or the builders save money by going in for cheap wiring, blocked exits and illegal extra floors. A fire NOC costs less than a life, but compliance eats into profit.

All tragedies are pinned down to unethical behaviour and collusion of interested parties. It is rarely just the owner. Someone signs the fake fire safety certificate. Someone in the municipal fire department looks the other way in lieu of a bribe. Someone approves of an illegal commercial space in a residential area. The paper trail is clean; the building is not. Zero concern for lives is the greatest tragedy of our lives.

Emergency exits locked to ‘prevent theft’. Overcrowding beyond permitted capacity. Flammable material stored because ‘What are the odds’’? The calculation is always: “Will I get caught?” and not “Will someone die”?

A person who has done something illegal is a criminal. One who is morally and ethically wrong is also a criminal. Thieves outwit systems. What is the punishment ‘if’ caught? A fine that is one per cent of a day’s profit and the case drags for any number of years. The risk reward is broken again. Unethical behaviour pays. Safety doesn’t. Officers personally should be made liable if structures cleared by them burn. Make owners criminally liable for deaths, not just fines. Charge them with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and straight away jail them for 10 years, if notmore. Property should be seized.

These are hardened criminals; public shaming does not embarrass them at all. Jail is a ‘business risk’. A twitter trend is just blabber. They are budgeted for it. Shut down in Rajkot and move to Surat is the modus operandi-a new name, new company but the same old illegal activities.

While anguished families of victims are in courts awaiting justice, the owner-perpetrator is inaugurating a new gaming zone, around the same time. No dearth of money results in getting a new identity, shifting base to a new city and enjoying new political protection. If there is a fire safety case against a person in Gujarat or Delhi, the ‘viable’ option for street-smart individuals is to set up a new establishment in the neighbouring state within 24 hours. The crores that he made are covered up in the form of a ‘cooling’ period.

By the time the CBI or ED book a case, he emerges as a popular real estate developer in Hyderabad. These guys roam in circles where ‘getting away with it is a flex’. Shame does not work and conscience is something they don’t have. You must hit at the things that they value most-money, freedom + status and the ability to do business, all over again. Seize assets before trial. Not after 10 years. Freeze bank accounts; attach properties, auction them to pay victims within 90 days can be good deterrents. Make them poor overnight, a workable formula evolved by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

We need to have fast -track courts for fire deaths. Families agonized, tired emotionally, physically and mentally wait for decades and decades but justice remains elusive.

Public apathy too is the reason for such tragedies. We walk into basements with one exit with a ‘chalta hai’ attitude. If we stop paying to enter unsafe places, they shut. Alas! The ones who took bribes to approve the building, are those very people entrusted with investigating the entire. These thieves outwit the system because the insiders are the ones who help them carry out their ‘operations’ unhindered. When everyone is hand in glove, the system protects itself, not the victims. And that is the tragic irony in India that is dreaming of ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’.