Kolkata Police, Fire dept officials conduct audit at shopping malls

Kolkata: After hotels, restaurants and guest houses, Kolkata Police and Fire Department officials visited several shopping malls to check fire safety measures in the city.

Officials were spotted at shopping malls like South City Mall and Park Street's Pataka House and Acropolis Mall on Wednesday.

According to an official, an audit is underway and the fire safety regulations of the places are being checked.

It is also being checked whether all the documents are in order.

Officials are checking whether the temporary stairs can be used in case of a emergency situation.

According to an official, condition of the fire safety system of those placed are being checked.

It is also being checked whether there is a safe exit route for the common people in case of an accident.

The police and fire officials are checking the safety system in the restaurants or food courts of these malls.

It is being informed through sources that the fire department and police are conducting raids in 29 shopping malls (small, medium and large) in the city.

Recently, a fire broke out in the hotel Shikha Inn at building number 15H on Mirza Ghalib Street in New Market, killing nine people.

Later, a special team was formed to investigate the fire safety of the hotels, restaurants and guest houses.

A report was submitted to State Secretariat Nabanna.

Based on the report, the West Bengal government cancelled the licenses of 919 hotels and guest houses in and around the city, following which the police and fire brigade conducted raids in various shopping malls on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the licenses of about 40 restaurants and food shops in Kolkata were cancelled for failing food safety standards.

The decision to cancel the license of these restaurants were taken following a week-long drive by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and its Food Safety Department officials to check the quality of food, raw materials and overall condition of the food shops.

According to the official, in may places rotten food was found while evidence of mixing paint used on the walls of the house with biryani was also discovered.

Somewhere fungus was found in the food while arachnids and rat nests were found in the food storage area.

As a result of the findings, the KMC suspended the licenses of several famous restaurants in Kolkata.

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