The increasing number of pending files in the fire brigade office has become the new cause of concern for corporators at the BMC. Seeing red over the issue, the corporators during Monday’s standing committee meet alleged that this could be a sign of the underlying corruption in the Fire Department. Claiming that getting ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) for buildings has become difficult in the past few months, the corporators demanded speedy investigation against the current chief fire officer (CFO).

“Many files in the fire brigade office are pending. Incidentally, these files are pertaining to getting the NOC for new buildings. We have got repeated complaints from our wards on how getting NOCs for new buildings has become extremely difficult,” said BJP corporator and a standing committee member Yogesh Sagar.

“After the new CFO joined, out of 502 applications for NOCs made between January and March this year, 221 are still pending with the department,” said Congress corporator Rajhans Singh. “The responsibility to give the NOCs and the necessary licence to new eateries should only lie with the building department and not the fire brigade,” said Singh. At present, it is mandatory for developers to follow the fire brigade manual for safety of buildings and accordingly they are given the NOC.

Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak agreed that complaints about pending files have increased over the past few months. “We are initiating an enquiry. If need be, we will have two different chief fire officers for the suburbs and the city,” said Phatak. However, he also stated that the Fire Department carries out detailed investigations before issuing an NOC and this could take time.