NEW DELHI: Delhi
high court has asked the
AAP government to indicate the steps it has taken to fill vacancies in the
fire department. The court was acting on a plea filed by Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), which said that the department is facing a “manpower crunch” due to more than 1,500 vacancies.
Responding to the plea, Delhi Fire Services told a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar that it has recruited 500 fire operators and an equal number have been employed on contract basis.
Apart from that, a requisition has been sent to Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board to recruit an additional 706 personnel.
The court asked the fire department to file an affidavit indicating the steps taken and listed the matter for further hearing on October 15. AVUT, through its chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy, said that despite 21 years having passed since the tragic incident at Uphaar theatre, safety arrangements in the national capital have not improved.
On June 13, 1997, 59 people, including women and children, died of suffocation after getting trapped inside Uphaar theatre in south Delhi during the screening of the Bollywood film Border. The auditorium got filled with smoke after a nearby transformer caught fire, which spread to the cars parked close to the building. Krishnamoorthy lost both her children in the incident.