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After the heart-wrenching fire incident that took place in Aliganj area of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, there is panic in the government and administrative departments. Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), which woke up from deep sleep after the tragic death of 15 innocent students, on Tuesday has issued the final notice to raze the illegal three-storey building once again. Along with this, LDA has started hunting the officers and engineers of its own department for allowing a purely residential building to be operated illegally as a commercial space by flouting the rules for years.
Announcing this major administrative action, Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) Vice Chairman Prathamesh Kumar said that the building where this horrific accident took place on Monday has been given a notice to demolish again due to serious violation of construction rules. The Vice President made it clear that the process of identifying the then and present officials who were involved in this fatal negligence has been expedited, so that the whole truth of the corruption and collusion that has been going on for so many years can be revealed and the culprits can be given the harshest punishment.
Demolition order was issued in the year 2016 also, but the game happened
The history of this entire building directly testifies to the corruption of the system and gross administrative negligence. According to LDA officials, the final order to completely demolish this three-storey illegal building was passed in the year 2016 itself. But see the collusion of the corrupt system that within less than two months that strict order was secretly revoked. The result of this collusion between the departmental officers and the owners was that this ‘death trap’ continued for years without any fear in the VIP residential area and in the end the lamps of 15 happy families were extinguished.
4 accused behind bars, 4 officers suspended and SIT formed
After the Chief Minister’s very strict stance on this horrific incident, the police and administration have taken swift action. Taking immediate action, the police arrested the four main people responsible for this accident and sent them to jail. The arrested accused have been identified as Ramakrishna Upadhyay (43), Virendra Prasad Shukla (62), Tushar Krishna Jaiswal (31) and Suresh Kumar Sahu. Along with this, four officials of the Electricity Department, Fire Brigade and Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) have been immediately suspended after being found prima facie guilty.
The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly investigate this tragic incident that took place on Usha Mehta Marg in Sector-D, Aliganj. This two-member SIT includes Additional Chief Secretary (Tourism) Amrit Abhijat and Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Lucknow Zone, Praveen Tiwari, who will prepare a detailed report of the entire case and submit it directly to the government soon.
Know how this heart-wrenching Aliganj fire incident happened?
This heart-wrenching incident took place on Monday afternoon in Sector-D (Usha Mehta Marg, Purnia), Aliganj, one of the busiest residential areas of Lucknow. A renowned animation center and coaching hub named ‘Head Hopper 3D Art Studio’ was running in this three-storey commercial building built by violating the rules. There was a pet shop on the first floor of this building, a graphic animation center on the second floor and a private library was being run on the top floor i.e. the third floor, where dozens of students were preparing for competitive examinations.
Biometric thumb-lock gate jammed as soon as power was cut, innocent people lost their lives
On Monday afternoon, suddenly a short circuit occurred in the animation center located on the second floor of the building and a massive fire broke out. Within no time, poisonous and thick black smoke spread throughout the building. The main door of this modern office was locked and unlocked with ‘thumb impression’ (biometric thumb system). As soon as the fire broke out, the power supply to the entire building was cut off, the biometric system completely hung up and the door was automatically locked. Due to this, the students present inside had no way to escape.
The entire building was packed with large glass panels on the outside, with no emergency exits and no working fire fighting system. The only narrow path to get down was completely engulfed in flames and smoke. To save their lives, children hid in rooms and bathrooms, where most of the children suffocated due to lack of oxygen and poisonous gases like carbon monoxide.
Rescue done by breaking the wall, 15 died and 9 fighting for life
The fire brigade and rescue team reached the spot and had to break the strong concrete wall to reach the children trapped inside. In this fire, 15 innocent people died painfully due to burning alive and suffocation, most of whom were students who had come here for coaching with the dream of a bright future. Apart from this, 9 other people sustained serious burn injuries and are undergoing treatment at the KGMU Trauma Center of the hospital. This horrific incident has once again raised very serious questions on the security of illegal commercial basements, coaching centers running rampant in cities and corrupt bureaucracy.