Fire safety measures burn holes in your pocket
Do you want to install fire-safety equipment that will result in safeguarding countless lives in the eventuality of a disaster? Well, like every other service associated with a government department, you need to pay a bribe for it.
One of our respondents from Bangalore had to pay Rs 10,000 as fee and three times the bribe amount (Rs 30,000) for procuring a No Objection Certificate from the State fire department! Of course, the unfairness of it all hit him and he refused to pay the bribe initially. However, after suffering for 20 days, he succumbed to the demand. In pure rage against the official who had fleeced him, he writes thus: “I am so much looking forward to see him being caught and being prosecuted for bribery.”
Another person was told that the documents submitted for procuring the certificate could not be tracked. On payment of Rs 2,500 they appeared from nowhere http://www.ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/bribe-paid-get-noc-installing-petrol-bunk
One might recall the gory tragedy in Kolkata last year at AMRI hospital when 89 patients perished in a fire due to inadequate safety measures. In July, 2004, 91 children were killed in a school fire at Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu). The devastating impact of not having proper safety measures just cannot be measured.
All the more reason for such a key department to not drive away establishments wanting to create safety measures through greedy bribe demands.
By Rupsa Chakraborty