The Supreme Court on Monday criticised civic authorities in Delhi after the fire in the city’s Bawana industrial area, The Indian Express reported. The court, which was hearing a petition on the sealing of commercial premises in Delhi on the orders of a panel it had appointed, also referred to the fire in Kamala Mills in Mumbai.
“There are people in Delhi who are violating laws with impunity,” the judges observed. “Look at Bawana. So human life does not seem to have great value...and in Mumbai also.”
The bench asked the Delhi civic body’s counsel what it was doing to stop laws from being violated in South Delhi. “What action are you taking against hotels and motels on MG road?” The judges also pointed out that a few pubs in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden locality “are so dangerous”.
Seventeen people were killed in a fire that broke out at a two-storey firecracker factory in northwest Delhi’s Bawana industrial area on January 20. In Mumbai, 14 people died on December 28, 2017, in a blaze that broke out in a restaurant at the Kamala Mills compound and then quickly spread to adjoining establishments.
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