It’s a see-saw situation, sort of. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has recovered crores in fees for regularising illegal constructions in a majority of city hospitals, but that is no remedy for lack of fire safety and the buildings still violate the Gujarat Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act 2013. So while the hospitals have paid huge amounts as impact fees to become ‘legal’, they have flouted safety norms. Most of the 500 hospitals in the city have extended illegal structures in basements and on terraces, leaving no open space in case of a fire emergency.  As per fire safety regulations, terraces, staircases and basements should be open so that fire tenders and personnel can approach any spot in the building from these points in case of a fire. This issue has been brought out by the Justice D A Mehta Commission, which inquired into the Shrey hospital and Uday hospital fire tragedies in the state. The report was tabled in the Assembly last week.  The commission has specifically pointed out that the government might authorise illegal structures, but what about the safety aspects? Justice Mehta has said that by regularising such constructions the government was putting lives of people at risk. He has urged the government to reconsider its policy of impact fee, especially for hospitals. This observation has put brakes on the government’s move to bring another impact fees policy. The government was planning to bring another scheme to regularise the remaining buildings in the state and collect money. The BJP government had brought out an impact fee policy in 2011, which provided for regularisation of unauthorised constructions in buildings. The main beneficiaries of the scheme were builders who had encroached upon parking areas, especially in basements.  A majority of old buildings in the city do not have parking facilities and the basements also have been covered by additional constructions. Besides, adequate margins have not been kept and there are constructions on terraces, leaving hardly any open spaces in the buildings. The AMC received 2.43 lakh impact fee applications under the policy of which 1.26 lakh were given clearance and the buildings were issued NOCs (no objection certificates).  The corporation earned more than Rs 400 crore from impact fee till 2020. The buildings given clearance and NOCs include many hospitals and nursing homes. These have been given BU permission though they have constructions in the parking area in basements. A senior AMC official said, “A large number of buildings, including hospitals, have been authorised by recovering impact fees. But there is violation of the Gujarat Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act 2013, which says that parking area and terraces should be open. There should be space for movement of vehicles in the margin area. Now the buildings, which have been regularised by impact fee, fall on the wrong side of fire safety laws. We should not give them NOCs. It is a policy decision and the government will have to act fast.” ???????... Read more.

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