BMC orders survey of city fire hydrants

Mumbai: Days after the Mantralaya fire, the BMC has ordered a survey of all the fire hydrantsin thecity.Thecivicbody also plans to work with other agencies to ensure that fire hydrants are not affected by any construction work. Defaulters are likely to be penalized if the instructions are notfollowed.      Members of the civic standing committee on Wednesday said there were several lapses when it came to dousing the fire at Mantralaya, including problemswiththefirehydrants.      Additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota said,"We are going to conduct a survey of allthefirehydrantsin thecity.It has come to our attention that many hydrants have got buried under the roads. The agencies carrying out work on the roads will be responsible for uncovering these hydrants and if they fail to do so, action will be taken againstthem."      The BMC will also be conducting an audit of all its buildings in the city and officials are planning to reduce the amount of paperwork by going digital, Jalota added. Govt Gutted Inflammable material, haphazard construction on top 2 floors: Audit National Disaster Mgmt Authority Team Wraps Up Probe Sharad Vyas TNN  Mumbai: A team of experts from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday completed its final report on the structural stability of Maharashtra secretariat building which was partially gutted in a fire last week. The report will be submitted to the state government on Thursday.      The team has found presence of inflammable material and haphazard construction on the top two floors of the building, which were worst affected by the blaze. The team had, in its preliminary audits, ruled out major structural damage to the eight-storied structure and declared it "sound and safe". "Whether the inflammable material was used as part of the original design or alterations is for the government to find out. Our scope was limited to structural safety," said a team member.      The issue of illegal and haphazard construction on the top floor and the original cause of the fire have been a bone of contention between the Congress and the NCP. The blame game continued in the pre-cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Senior ministers, many of whom pointed fingers at the saffron combine as the top floor was constructed during its reign, discussed the need to fix responsibility for any faulty wiring or alterations that could have fuelled the fire. A total of 166 truck-load of debris has been removed so far by the public works department (PWD).      The Congress ministers hinted at the negligence caused by the NCP-controlled PWD which, in turn, has been hinting at the apathy of the chief minister-controlled general administration department (GAD). "Once all of this (repair and renovation) is over, we will fix responsibility for negligence. Someone will have to answer why the fire raged for so long despite the entire state machinery present for rescue," said a Congress minister.      PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal has clarified that the PWD can't be solely held responsible for deficiency found in the building as part of an audit conducted in 2008. In his clarification to the PM, CM Prithviraj Chavan has hinted at a delay in dousing of the fire.  Sixteen of 102 CCTV cameras damaged  S ixteen cameras of installed the 102 CCTV in Mantralaya were damaged in the last week's blaze, said the crime branch, which is probing the fire. So far, the sleuths have examined footage from 50 of the remaining 86 cameras. The crime branch will rope in forensic experts as some of the CCTV footage is not clear due to smoke during the fire. TNN  MMRDA to store data on distant servers  The prompted Mantralaya the Mumbai fire has Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to scan its files on a priority basis and store the data on distant servers. "We will store the data on the servers in different cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and may be even abroad," said MMRDA commissioner Rahul Asthana. TNN