The list include all the major fire incidents that shook the city in the last two years including the Nandaram Market fire at Burrabazaar that occurred on January 12, the fire at the plastic factory at Kasba on March 12, LIC building fire at Barasat on March 28 and the fire at Panchannagram near By-pass that occurred on March 9.

All these incidents claimed many lives and turned property worth crores into ashes. The latest incident occurred at a garment shop at Sodepur on May 16 that took the lives of 12 people who died after inhaling noxious smoke. Thirty people were taken ill and admitted in different hospitals. “We are helpless because we cannot arrest people. We can only file FIRs for violation of fire rules and it is the police who have to take action. Unfortunately, the police have done nothing in all these cases,” said Pratim Chatterjee, minister for fire services.

The state government, however, has assured that soon the action will be taken in all these cases. “They have told me about this. We will see why police have not taken any action. We will also see that prosecution in these cases starts soon,” said Asim Dasgupta, Minister for Finance, who had a meeting today with the fire minister and Minister for Urban Development Ashok Bhattacharya to come up with the measures to prevent fire accidents.

Dasgupta also announced that the state government will pay compensation to fire victims. “From now on we will pay compensation to all the innocent victims of fire accidents. A discussion with the chief minister is needed in this regard and after that we will announce the amount,” said Dasgupta.

Also, the state government today set up a five-member committee headed by Arnab Roy, the Special Secretary, Urban Development Department which will oversee whether all shops and commercial establishments were following fire safety rules.