18 shops gutted

Goods worth Rs 10 lakh destroyed Hyderabad: As many as 18 footwear, readymade and stationery shops were gutted after a fire broke out in a footwear shop near Osmania Medical College in Koti early on Tuesday. The fire service officials suspect the accident was caused by a short-circuit. They said that the loss of the damage was yet to be assessed. According to fire service officials, Aslam, a shop owner, called at 6.15 am and informed them about the mishap. Five fire tenders from Gowliguda, Musheerabad, Assembly and other nearest areas rushed to the spot and doused the fire. Shutters of the shops were removed after smoke was found emanating. One of the owners, Amir, said that he was informed about the incident at 6 am. "I reached within ten minutes, but the shops were burnt by then," he said. He asserted that he always switch off the main board of the power supply and check before leaving. "I ensure that no one is left inside the shop," he said. When it comes to ownership of the shops, he said all the shops were registered 3-4 year back. "I have been running the shops since last 20 years," he added. He said that the stocks of footwear and bags worth Rs 8-10 lakh were gutted in the mishap. However, the GHMC officials claimed that the shops were unauthorised. "The shops do not have permission. We don't receive either property tax or commercial tax from the owners. A court issued a directive over the private land, where the shops were established," GHMC deputy Commissioner Satyanarayana said. He added that action would be taken only after submitting a report on the accident. All the owners maintained that they had permission. They demanded compensation for the damage from the government. ADFO Srinivas Reddy and Prabhakar Reddy along with four fire station officers (FSOs) supervised the fire-fighting operations which went on for over 3 hours.