The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided that the Fire and Emergency Services department will inspect all KMC markets and submit adequate recommendations.

At a recent meeting between Gautam Mohan Chakraborty, Commissioner of Police; Alapan Bandyopadhyay, municipal commissioner and Anil Kumar, Director-General of Fire and Emergency Services, it was decided that the Fire department would conduct a detailed inspection of all the markets and give recommendations on the fire-safety measures that need to be installed.

“Once the recommendations are in place, they can be executed by the department’s empanelled agencies and we will bear the necessary cost,” said Bandyopadhyay.

Earlier, there were allegations against the KMC that its markets had been openly flouting fire-safety norms. Sources in the Fire department claimed that recommendations on the Hogg Market had been submitted more than five years ago and certain fire-safety measures were installed but the certificate was never renewed since then.

“The Hogg Market needs a strong inbuilt fire-fighting system. And the same applies to all other markets,” said Gopal Bhattacharya, the Director of Fire and Emergency Services.

“We have nothing to do with the Nandaram Market fire. But it’s time we took some step,” said Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya. Some of the popular KMC markets include Park Circus market, Lansdowne market, Lake market, New Alipore market and the Bansdroni market.