NHRC conducts spots enquiry at Mundka fire site

New Delhi: A team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday conducted spot enquiry at the Mundka building where 27 lives were snuffed out in a massive fire accident on May 13.

The team, led by NHRC DIG S.K. Meena, examined the whole building and later while speaking to the media persons said that they are looking into any human rights violation that has occurred there.

The team will also probe the whole incident.

Earlier on Sunday, the NHRC took suo-motu cognizance of the incident and issued notice to the Delhi government asking its Chief Secretary to submit a report to the Commission within two weeks including action taken against the responsible authorities or officers, fixing the culpability and status of disbursement of the relief and rehabilitation granted by the government.

The NHRC also observed that this fire incident has once again established that the city authorities have learnt little from similar incidents in the past that exposed the utter lack of fire safety mechanisms and the gaping holes in their implementation.

"Going by the contents of media reports, this appears to be the worst case of gross violation of human rights of the victims due to utter apathy and complete dereliction of statutory duties of public servants in the national capital of Delhi causing loss of valuable lives due to fire," it noted.

Pertinently, the ill-fated building was not having the required No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department.

"The said building owners never applied for a Fire NOC," Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg has said multiple times.

A Fire NOC certifies that a building has been deemed complied with the fire prevention and fire safety requirements in accordance with Rule 33 of the Delhi Fire Service Rules.