Mohali : The district administration has failed to take action against the industrial units and the commercial buildings which do not have fire safety arrangements. The department had carried out a fire safety audit last year and identified the units where the fire safety arrangements were not adequate and submitted a detailed report to the administration. In total, the fire department had issued 693 notices from September last year to January this year for violations of the Fire Safety Act.

According to the officials of the fire department, during the fire audit which was conducted in July-August last year, they had identified 508 industrial as well as commercial establishments in the district which did not have adequate fire safety arrangements.

“After identifying the violators, we issued notices to the managements of these establishments. We also submitted the report to the administration, but no action was taken against them,” a fire department officer said.

The officer said the fire department issued 185 more notices to the violators but no action was taken yet.

The officer said, “What is the purpose of issuing notices when the administration is not taking any action? We have found that the fire safety equipment was installed at many places but it was not in a working condition. It was just an eyewash.”

The fire department could not start the checking drive of the paying guest accommodations in the city. The officials of the department said that they were yet to get the list of registered PGs from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).

Chief Fire Officer Mohan Lal Verma said that he had written a letter to GMADA to provide the list but they were yet to get it.

Officiating Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain said that she had asked the fire department to submit the list of the violators and after studying it in detail, necessary action would be taken against them.

The fire safety audit was carried out after a fire incident had claimed 22 lives in Ahmedabad in May last year.