Karachi: The Sindh government has announced Rs1 million compensation for each of the bereaved families whose relatives died in a recent factory fire in Karachi.
The announcement to this effect was made by Karachi’s Administrator, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, as he met the bereaved relatives of those who lost their lives in the fire. Sixteen labourers lost their lives in the fire on August 27 in what was described as an illegally built chemical factory in a residential locality in Korangi area of Karachi.
Karachi’s Administrator said the people who were injured in the incident were being provided with best possible treatment facilities. He said the Sindh government fully stood with the bereaved heirs as they would be provided with utmost support to share their grief and sorrow.
Fire safety precautions
Later, chairing a top-level meeting in the aftermath of the fire, Wahab directed the chief of Karachi Development Authority to provide him the list of all the residential plots in the same neighbourhood of Karachi where the fire occurred, on which industrial units had been illegally established.
He also asked the deputy commissioners posted in all districts of Karachi to form special teams to carry out inspection of all the residential plots in Karachi whose commercial use had been continuing without authorisation.
The inspection teams would also visit different industrial zones of the city to make sure that all the factories had fully implemented the fire safety precautions.
The city’s administrators asked the officials concerned to take due punitive action against the industrial units, which didn’t take fire safety precautions.
He said precious human lives had been lost in the latest incident due to human negligence as due safety precautions should be strictly observed to avoid such tragedies in future.
Opposition leader
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Shaikh, urged the government that compensation amount for each of the bereaved families should be increased to Rs 10 million keeping in view their massive suffering.
He said the federal government had recently provided 52 state-of-the-art fire engines to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation but the latter did not have enough drivers to operate them.
He said that inordinate delay in arrival of fire engines at the site of the incident had been responsible for the large number of causalities. He held Sindh Chief Minister, provincial Labour Minister, and Karachi’s Administrator responsible for the incident while saying that their names should also be included in the criminal case lodged by the police after the fire tragedy.
