Five days after a fire at a Lucknow hotel killed four persons, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday ordered the suspension of 15 officers of four different departments and action against four retired officers.
The CM’s order comes a day after a two-member probe panel, comprising Lucknow Police Commissioner SB Shiradkar and Commissioner (Lucknow Division) Roshan Jacob, submitted its report to the state Home Department.
According to a government spokesperson, the officers against who action will be taken are from the departments of Home, Energy, Appointment, Housing and Urban Planning, Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and Excise.
“The serving officers will be suspended and departments inquiry will be instituted against them. Action will be taken as per the rules against the retired officials,” the spokesperson said, adding, that these officers have been prima facie found responsible for doing anomalies and negligence.
Among the officers who will be suspended are Sushil Yadav (fire officer), Yogendra Prasad (fire officer-second), Chief Fire Officer Vijay Kumar Singh from the Home Department); Assistant Director (Electrical Safety) Vijay Kumar Rao, Junior Engineer Ashish Kumar Mishra, Sub-Divisional Officer Rajesh Kumar Mishra from the Energy Department); PCS officer Mahendra Kumar Mishra (then vihit officer in LDA).
Among other LDA officers to be suspended are then assistant engineer Rakesh Mohan, junior engineer Jitendra Nath Dubey, junior engineer Ravindra Kumar Srivastava, junior engineer Jaiveer Singh, and another officer Ram Pratap.
In Excise Department, action has been ordered against then Lucknow district excise officer Santosh Kumar Tiwari, excise inspector sector-1 in Lucknow Amit Kumar Srivastava and deputy excise commissioner of Lucknow Division Jainendra Upadhyay.
Among the retired officers facing action include chief fire officer Abhaynath Pandey, LDA executive engineer Arun Kumar Singh, executive engineer Om Prakash Mishra and junior engineer Ganeshi Dutt Singh.
The two-member probe panel reportedly held the officials of several departments responsible for not performing their duty properly as the hotel – Levana Suites — was operational for the last five years without completing the necessary paperwork, sources said.
The Monday morning fire at Levana Suites, located in the commercial hub of Hazratganj, left four guests dead, including two women, and 10 others injured.
Police have so far arrested three persons — two hotel owners Rohit Agarwal and cousin Rahul Agarwal, and the hotel manager, Sagar Srivastava. They have been booked under IPC sections 304 (causing death by negligence) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide).
Following the fire, the LDA sealed Levana Suites after a preliminary probe found that the hotel’s map was not approved, and yet the hotel had been running for the last five years.
In its preliminary inquiry, the LDA found that on May 26 this year, its zonal officer issued a notice to the owners of Levana Suites, asking them to submit the map of the hotel. After getting no reply, the LDA issued a second notice on August 28 this year. The second notice was issued under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973. The matter is still being heard.
Similarly, the probe team found that the fire department issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the hotel despite the lack of fire safety management there.
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In the FIR against the owners and the manager of the hotel, police said that they did not make proper arrangements for the exit of people in an untoward situation. “The power connection of the building was done in an irresponsible manner and there was no secure arrangement for keeping gas cylinders… Since there were iron grilles at the facade of the hotel building, people got trapped inside. The firefighters had to cut through the iron grilles to enter the building to rescue people,” the FIR stated.
While the fire is suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit in the hotel’s kitchen on the ground floor, the Chief Medical Officer had earlier said that people died of suffocation.