Two days after a video gaming zone in Rajkot burst into flames and killed 28 people, including nine children, and left their bodies burnt beyond recognition, the city’s municipal body came under fire from the Gujarat High Court for failing to certify at least two such structures in the city.
The court was furious when told two gaming zones had been operating – for over 24 months each – without the required permits, including fire safety certificates, and said it could no longer “trust” the state government, which is controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
This was after the Rajkot municipal body said, in court, that “our approval was not taken…”
“This has been going on for two-and-a-half years (referring to the Rajkot gaming zone). Are we to assume you turned a blind eye? What do you and your followers do?” the court thundered.
The Rajkot gaming zone, it has emerged, was granted a license by local cops in November last year, which was renewed to December 31, 2024, Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava said.
The hearing then went from bad to worse for the Rajkot municipal body after photographs showed officials at the gaming zone. “Who were these officers? Did they go there to play?” the court asked.
The court also ripped into the state government.
“Have you gone blind? Did you fall asleep? Now we do not trust the local system and the state,” the court raged when told fire safety certification hearings have been unresolved for four years.
Advocate Manisha Luv Kumar Shah, appearing for the state government, also acknowledged that two other gaming zones – in Ahmedabad – did not have permission to operate, and said a special team had been formed to investigate all such issues and file a report within 72 hours.
This includes mini-gaming zones inside malls, the court was told, for a total of 34 in the city, of which three do not have a no-objection certificate – a mandatory requirement – from the fire department.
The state said a gaming zone cannot open sans such a certificate, to which the High Court – appearing increasingly irritated – shot back, “Then this rule was not followed in Rajkot.”
In an attempt to reassure the court of action being taken, the state said three owners had been arrested and the process of taking the rest into custody is “ongoing”.
Meanwhile, the court also pointed to “many incidents” in the past and said, “…we have given many decisions and instructions in the past four years. Even after that six incidents took place in the state.”
Among the major fire-related incidents in Gujarat since 2023 were a blaze at a chemical factory in Surat in November that killed seven people and injured a dozen more.
A few days earlier a fire at a city multiplex destroyed property and injured two employees.
In July there was a fire at an Ahmedabad hospital that forced the evacuation of 125 patients. There was also a massive blaze in firecracker shops in an industrial area of the city in May
In March a fire at a hospital in Surat killed an infant.
“People are dying due to (state) machinery (not working)…” the irate court observed. (Agencies)