Deccan Mall still out of reach for search ops

Hyderabad: Smoke is still billowing from the ruins of Deccan Mall which was destroyed in a major fire on Thursday in the city. Pungent smell of chemicals and thick smoke hindered the follow-up action like structure analysis of the building.

The second floor had collapsed and traces of three charred bodies could be found in drone visuals which were not very clear.

It took about 12 hours for the Fire department and other wings to bring the fire under control after pressing 40 fire engines into action. The fire officials and the police could not enter the building even on Friday evening. As expected, statements expressing intention of finding a solution to the series of fire accidents that have been taking place in the city have started pouring in.

As the Minister for MAUD K T Rama Rao is abroad, Minister for Animal Husbandry T Srinivas Yadav said the government would soon hold an all-party meeting to seek suggestions on action against illegal buildings. This would be followed by a high-level committee meeting constituted by the state government on illegal constructions on January 25.

But residents in and around the Deccan Mall said the blame game had begun. They felt action should be taken immediately instead of holding meetings.

A team of experts from the NIT (National Institute of Technology) is yet to examine the structural quality and action will be initiated based on the report. According to the Minister, there are over 25,000 illegal constructions in Hyderabad. The big question, why the respective municipal corporations and GHMC did not take any action against them, is still unanswered.

Opposition parties, including Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, alleged that the state government was regularising the illegal structures and no monitoring was done to prevent illegal constructions which includes non-observance of the laws. The government refutes this but the problems the Fire department faced on Thursday is a clear example of how the laxity of civic authorities had resulted in problems for department as they could not move their vehicles closer to the building and how they had to struggle dousing fire from neighbouring buildings.