TOGETHERVCAN’S SOCIAL SANCHAR ON ‘SHORT-CIRCUITING’ ON FIRE SAFETY

When
October 11,2022 @ 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Are You ‘Short-Circuiting’ on Fire Safety?

Decoding Electrical Safety and Fire Hazards

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) organised a Social Sanchar in the form of a Panel Discussion, to help Decode Electrical Safety and Fire Hazards, on 11th October, 2022.

It marked the restart of the original physical TogetherVCAN’s Social Sanchars, at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club.

The Social Sanchar began with Smt. Indrani Malkani, Chairman & Managing Trustee of VCAN, welcoming the in-house and online participants, on behalf of BMC and VCAN.

With regret she conveyed that the Moderator of the Panel Discussion, Shri. Ajit Kumar Jain IAS (Retd.), Former Addl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra and State Information Commissioner, as well as the lead Panellist Smt. Ashwini Bhide IAS, Addl. Municipal Commissioner (ES) BMC, were unable to join. Shri Jain had been suddenly taken ill and Smt. Bhide’s inability was due to a personal unavoidable circumstance.
However, Smt. Malkani added, Shri Jain’s opening remarks would be presented at the Panel Discussion by his former Research Associate Shri. Rudreshwar Malkani and on behalf of Smt. Ashwini Bhide, her views would be conveyed by Shri. Hemant Parab Chief Fire Officer Mumbai Fire Brigade.

A brief introduction was given by Smt. Malkani about VCAN, and its overarching objective of establishing linkages and interactions between Citizens and several Government Authorities. She spoke about the connection citizens have with the BMC and Mumbai Fire Brigade being an excellent unit of BMC.

Smt. Malkani then proceeded to introduce the Distinguished Panel Speakers;

Shri Hemant Parab, Chief Fire Officer, Mumbai Fire Brigade

Shri Arvind Mandke, Former Chief Fire Officer Thane Municipal Corporation & CIDCO

Shri Rajendra Chaudhary, Technical Advisor to Mumbai Fire Brigade, Former Dy Chief Fire Officer (Technical), Mumbai Fire Brigade

Shri Dinesh Khonde, Chief Electrical Inspector, Maharashtra State

To view the Brief Profile of the Moderator, Lead Panellist and All the other Panellists: click here

Following the introduction, Smt. Malkani conveyed her grateful thanks to all the partners for enabling the Social Sanchar to take place.

Support Partners;

Vaccifire is a pioneer in the field of Fire Safety and is protecting more than 2 Lac citizens across 125 Residential and Commercial Complexes in Mumbai.

Noble Paints – Pioneers in fire-retardant coatings in the country. Their products have been tested by CBRI, Roorkee and approved by the Fire Brigade for use and have been used in several landmark heritage buildings in Mumbai.

DORO Consultancy is into Management Consultancy for Growth and Market Entry Strategies for Indian market

Venue Partner: Royal Bombay Yacht Club

Implementing Partner: Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR)

College Partner: Jai Hind College; their Student Council, the NSS and all the Students

She thanked the video tech team Team One, photographer Shri. Abhishek Maity, VCAN’s IT team Teknowlegion and her assistant and consultant for social media Shri. Sumit Lulla, friends in the media and all present in-house and online.

In the absence of Shri Ajit Kumar Jain, Smt. Malkani took on the role of the Moderator and opened the Panel Discussion by mentioning about Electrical Safety, its compliance and the significance of the subject question “Are You ‘Short-Circuiting’ on Fire Safety?

She added that it is intended that on conclusion of the Panel Discussions, appropriate recommendations will be taken on record for taking it forward.

Smt. Malkani then invited Shri. Rudreshwar Malkani to read out Shri Ajit Kumar Jain’s Opening Remarks.

To view Shri Ajit Kumar Jain’s Opening Remarks, click here

Shri. Hemant Parab was then invited to speak on behalf of Smt. Ashwini Bhide to present her views as well as the BMC Presentation related to Mumbai Fire Brigade – Focus on Electrical Fire Safety, stress on residence building fires, creation of awareness among the citizenry and expectation from them. Shri Rajendra Chaudhary, joined Shri Parab to highlight the sophisticated firefighting system of the Mumbai Fire Brigade.

Shri Dinesh Khonde, highlighted the issues related to Electrical Safety in High-rise buildings, legal framework of electrical safety – main provisions of Electricity Act 2003, Central Electricity Authority guidance & State Policy.

He highlighted his department’s work and achievements, how to get the electrical contractor license, the policy of periodic inspection in high load installation, provisions related to high-rise buildings, the self-inspection by the occupiers in the buildings, self-certification through Chartered Electrical Safety Engineers.

He also mentioned the website providing all the information about his office – https://www.ceimah.in/home.
Lift Safety issues was also taken up by him.

Shri Arvind Mandke, spoke on the existing legal provision related to the citizens, in the Maharashtra Fire Act & Rules. He cited a few examples related to CIDCO and Thane and highlighted the change in the mindset of the citizens towards fire safety.
A key point made was, while installation of the fire safety system is important, its regular operation maintenance, is more important to ensure that the system really works when needed. He spoke about the concept of Fire Volunteers, Provision of law regarding high-rise buildings and he briefly touched upon the UDCPR (United Development Control and Prevention Rules 2022) which are applicable to all the cities in Maharashtra, except Mumbai.

Considering the spectrum of critical issues which were discussed, it would best be heard directly from the Panellists by viewing the Panel Discussion video click here

To view the PDF version of the PPTs**;

Shri Hemant Parab and Shri Rajendra Chaudhary on behalf of BMC click here

Shri Dinesh Khonde click here

Shri Arvind Mandke click here

Followed by the informative views of the panellists, the Q & A session was opened to questions from in-house audience members as well as questions via WhatsApp, SMS, Twitter, YouTube Chat and Facebook Chat, by the online audience.

The Q & A session starts from the 92 minutes onward. click here

At the conclusion of the Q & A, Smt. Malkani invited her fellow Trustee Shri. V. Ranganathan IAS (Retd.) Former Municipal Commissioner BMC and Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra, to give the Summary of the Panel Discussion.

Summary:

• Our recent experience is that 73% of the fires in Mumbai originate from electrical short circuits.
• In most cases of fire, the firefighting systems in the premises are found to be non-functional.
• Six monthly inspections of fire-fighting installations are mostly not done
• BMC should get a board prominently displayed at the entrance of every building detailing firefighting protocol and preventive measures.
• Govt of Maharashtra should ensure that a sufficiently large number of Certified Electrical Auditors are available in Mumbai City and elsewhere in the State.
• Occupancy Certificate may NOT be given to any building without the certificate of electrical auditor.
• Can BMC consider levy of penalty on owners if they do not audit the fire safety and electrical systems twice a year, rectify deficiencies and conduct fire drill?
• Co-operation Department machinery may be involved ti ensure action by Co-operative Housing Societies
• Security staff to be trained in fire-fighting by Mumbai Fire Brigade,

Concluding the session, Smt Malkani conveyed that the present Panel Discussion would be followed up with a more focused Social Sanchar addressing specific issues raised in today session.

She then invited the other Trustees of VCAN present, Shri Rajan Jayakar, Capt. Ashok Malkani and Capt. Sohrab Kapadia and Shri Deepak Vaswani, President of Royal Bombay Yacht Club to join her and present mementos to the Panellists.

Thereafter, an official photograph was taken with the Trustees of VCAN and all were invited for some light refreshments.

To view the photos of the event, click here

To view the video of the event, click here

To view the PDF of all the press coverages with clickable links, click here

 To view the pre event press coverage by the Times of India, on 8^th October click here

To view the press coverage by the Times of India, on 12^th October click here

To view the press coverage by the Midday, on 13^th October click here

To view the press coverage by the Indian Express, on 13^th October  click here

**Please be advised, the information in the presentations were prepared by the Panellists; Shri. Hemant Parab and Shri Rajendra Chaudhary on behalf of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Shri Dinesh Khonde and Shri Arvind Mandke, and was presented at the TogetherVCAN’s Social Sanchar – Panel Discussion held on 11th October 2022.

All Rights are reserved with the Authors and due acknowledgement is to be given to the Authors should this presentation in part or in full be used by anyone anywhere. The contents of the presentations are by the Authors and not by VCAN.

All our articles are periodically updated.