The AOA is doing what it can to upgrade the defunct firefighting apparatus, but it can't do all of it alone. Repeated notices sent to the builder have gone unaddressed.
Amrapali Village in Indirapuram is in a precarious situation. Its firefighting system, residents say, is outdated and the builder, which is responsible for its upgradation, is missing in action. The AOA is doing what it can, but claims it will not be able to overhaul the entire firefighting apparatus without the intervention of the builder. So what do they do if a fire breaks out?
Maheshwaran Nair, a resident of the society, however, said that the AOA was not taking the issue seriously enough. He maintained that the fire extinguishers that were recently refilled did not have sufficient pressure and would not be able to tackle a fire effectively in case one did break out in the society.
Residents have also taken to social media to raise the issue with the district administration and other relevant departments.
Rakesh Kumar, secretary of the society’s AOA, said that the issue dated back to October 2015, when there was a huge fire in one of society’s flats. “Following the incident, the fire department gave us a list of 20 discrepancies in the firefighting system here,” he said. “The society was then being maintained by the Amrapali group. But the builder did not instal the required apparatus. Only four of the 11 towers had NOCs from the fire department then — and even those have expired now.”
The Ghaziabad fire department in June 2017 also issued notices to the builder, the AOA and the residents to renovate the society’s firefighting system withing 20 days. This was followed by another notice in January 2018, which gave them another 20 days for action. However, going by the way things stand now, nothing has been done about it.
Kumar said that the onus of upgrading the firefighting system lay on the builder. The entire work would cost almost Rs 40 lakh and it was impossible for the AOA and the residents to shell out that much.
When asked about the maintenance and the low pressure of the fire extinguishers, Kumar said that the AOA was trying to refill the fire extinguishers to match the necessary requirements but was faced with a shortage of funds. “We had refilled one batch of cylinders in January last year, which have now expired, and another batch was refilled later. We are trying to get things done, but it is impossible for us alone to do it all,” Kumar said.
The AOA has also approached the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) to intervene in the matter, following which GDA sent a letter to Anil Sharma, CMD of Amrapali, ordering him to set up the proper firefighting apparatus in the society. However, even this fell on deaf ears.
Kumar said the situation had become worse due to the financial condition of the Amrapali group.
“We have not yet received the IFMS [interest-free maintenance service] amount from the builder, which amounts to more than a crore!” he said. “Moreover, things have worsened after Amrapali was declared insolvent. We do not know who to coordinate with the builder any more. The representatives of the builder keep changing and even the Sector 62 Amrapali office is closed now.”
“All we can do is approach GDA with our issues, and the matter just goes on,” Kumar added.
