Gujarat Hardlook: Hearth Alarm | Ahmedabad Information

Nevertheless, a more in-depth have a look at this upcoming consolidation system and the plans formulated by the Job Pressure to strengthen Hearth and Emergency Companies, reveals that when carried out, it can nonetheless go away Gujarat with ‘One State, Two Methods’ as a result of the 17 municipal companies, together with 9 new ones, will proceed to have their very own hearth preventing providers.

A working example is the massive blaze within the Gopal Snacks manufacturing unit inside Metoda GIDC on the outskirts of Rajkot on December 11, 2024, when the native hearth providers couldn’t cope. The fireplace within the five-storey constructing with a basement stuffed with plastic packing supplies was so huge that smoke may very well be seen from a distance of seven kilometres.

Whereas the fireplace providers of the Metoda GIDC, as first responders, tried to douse the fireplace, the blaze solely grew stronger, thus requiring the Rajkot Hearth and Emergency Companies (RFES) — which dispatched 4 firefighting autos to the spot — to intervene.

Nevertheless, because the blaze continued unabated, extra firefighting groups needed to be referred to as in from varied elements of Saurashtra. Groups from close by nagarpalikas and industrial areas like Kalavad, Shapar-Veraval Industries Affiliation, Gondal, Jetpur, and Lodhika GIDC to far off locations like Morbi and Dhoraji, that are 80 km away, other than groups from Jamjodhpur, Jamnagar and Reliance Industries, that are in extra of 100 km away, ended up being a part of the operation.

The groups labored for 45 hours earlier than the blaze was lastly introduced underneath management.

The latest hearth on the busy the Shiv Shakti Textile Market in Surat, a municipal company space, continued for 36 hours. The constructing was claimed to have had a working firefighting system. The blaze, which broke out throughout the enterprise hours on Tuesday and claimed one life, may very well be doused solely by Thursday.

The last word objective of the uniform service, say officers, is to lower the turnout time and be certain that firefighters wouldn’t have to hurry from 100 km away as a result of lack of sources and manpower in non-urban areas of the state.

A triumvirate hearth service

At present, the fireplace and emergency providers in Gujarat are trifurcated into three main elements.

First, these run by the eight current municipal companies and those who might be developed within the 9 new ones. Second, these run by the 150 municipalities underneath 32 districts (minus Dang), falling underneath six areas. Third, the GSFPS.

The price range doc of the City Growth and City Housing Division says, “It’s proposed to create 346 new posts of various cadres in 32 District Mannequin Hearth Stations underneath One State One Cadre with a view to strengthening the State Hearth Prevention Companies. For this objective, an quantity of Rs 12.33 crore could be required throughout the monetary yr of 2025-26.”

The Indian Categorical spoke to officers concerned on this restructuring plan who confirmed that the ‘One State, One Cadre’ coverage might be relevant solely to fireplace departments run by the nagarpalikas (municipalities) since this can be a bigger space of the state that caters to not simply the semi-urban, but additionally the agricultural areas of Gujarat.

“Whereas the municipal companies are kind of functioning independently and we wish to strengthen them, the functioning of the fireplace providers in nagarpalikas leaves a lot to be desired. We additionally studied fashions from different states the place, in most locations, the state hearth service mannequin has been adopted,” stated an official intently related to this plan.

Why consolidate the nagarpalikas?

There are three most important causes behind the consolidation of the semi-urban and rural hearth providers. These embody extreme employees crunch, incapability to satisfy turnout objectives and incapability to independently take care of main fires with out assist from cities.

Paresh Vyas, the Hearth Advisor to the Gujarat authorities, stated, “We’re working in direction of the consolidation of the fireplace providers in Gujarat and attempting to make sure environment friendly supply of providers within the farthest reaches of the state by lowering response time to manage fires and different emergencies.”

Workers crunch: There are important gaps within the staffing for the fireplace providers within the nagarpalikas. At present, of 150 nagarpalikas in Gujarat, 32 will turn into district head quarters (HQs). Of the 462 sanctioned posts in 118 Nagarpalikas, solely 62 are crammed completely. Others posts have been stuffed with non permanent, contractual and outsourced staffers.

Turnout time: In line with the Standing Hearth Advisory Committee (SFAC), relying on the danger class, the really helpful response time for first hearth tender is five-seven minutes in city areas and 20 minutes in rural areas.

Officers have admitted that the dearth of employees, lack of employees quarters at hearth stations and restricted amenities hamper the turnout in rural areas, particularly these situated removed from main cities.

Main fires: The nagarpalika hearth providers are unable to take care of main fires, resulting in others from so far as 100 km having to deploy firefighting groups to comprise industrial-scale blazes.

Consolidation in two phases

Explaining the short-term and long-term objectives, an official stated, “Beginning with the employees on the 32 district mannequin hearth stations, (we) in the end intend to take all of the municipality hearth employees and switch them right into a state cadre instantly underneath the management of the director of GSFPS. Whereas the state has already offered funds to assemble these mannequin hearth stations as district HQs, afterward, the complete employees, car, upkeep and infrastructure will instantly fall underneath the UDD.”

This mannequin, stated officers, goals to show the localised hearth providers right into a extra formalised construction just like the police division headed by officers on the district, area and state ranges. This can occur in two phases over the subsequent one yr.

Part-I: A complete of 32 municipalities will turn into District Hearth HQs with mannequin hearth stations. Whereas the Dang district had earlier been excluded because it doesn’t have a single Nagarpalika, funds have been allotted to construct a thirty third district HQ in Ahwa-Dang. Plans are additionally underway to ensure there may be one other District Hearth HQ within the thirty fourth “potential” district of Gujarat if Tharad is certainly carved out of Banaskantha.

Mannequin hearth stations are these constructed with a bigger variety of car bays, a management room and employees quarters, all meant to scale back the turnout time to achieve a blaze. This began in 2021-22. The primary one was accomplished in Nadiad of Kheda district and inaugurated on August 14, 2024, whereas many others are on the verge of completion. Nevertheless, out of 32 mannequin hearth stations-cum-district HQs, solely 25 might be utilized by state hearth providers as a result of seven have turn into municipal companies. The GSFPS should determine 7 completely different nagarpalikas in these districts to arrange new HQs. This work is presently underway.

The primary section will even see the GSFPS instantly recruiting employees for the 32 District Hearth HQs as workers of the state authorities. Right here, the federal government has sanctioned 672 posts, at 21 employees per HQ. These posts are as a consequence of be crammed shortly. This leaves 118 different municipalities. Of those, 30 municipalities don’t have any hearth stations or infrastructure in any respect. Subsequently, these municipalities will get hearth stations and people might be staffed instantly by the GSFPS.

The 2025-26 price range has allotted Rs 32 crore for a “Mannequin Hearth Station at Dang” and hearth stations at 15 municipalities for the acquisition of the land and building of the constructing.

Part-II: Within the second section, the remaining 88 municipalities might be absorbed by the state service. This can in the end prepared the ground to enact transfers of all Class-I and Class-II officers of the fireplace service within the coming years.

Municipal companies to retain autonomy

In the meantime, officers confirmed that the 17 municipal companies will proceed to run their very own hearth providers underneath the 74th Modification to the Structure. This, in flip, additionally signifies that the 9 new municipal companies, upgraded final yr, should significantly scale up the fireplace departments they inherited from their former municipalities.

Fortuitously, seven out of 9 municipalities that had been upgraded to municipal companies, excluding Kutch and Valsad, have already got a sanctioned mannequin hearth station every, underneath building deliberate earlier, that may assist them arrange their HQs.

However, this additionally signifies that the GSFPS should discover different Nagarpalikas in seven districts to arrange their District Hearth HQs to satisfy the wants of semi-urban and rural areas.

Job Pressure

“Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply that the municipal companies might be left to their very own units. The State Job Pressure will proceed to observe their progress week after week and assist out the place vital,” stated an official of the UDD.

The Job Pressure, notified on the finish of December 2024, contains the Director and Deputy Director of GSFPS, Hearth Advisor to the State, Director of GSDMA, Assistant Director of DISH, CEO of Gujarat State Hearth Academy, and both all of the CFOs or the RFOs. Sources stated that Ashwani Kumar, the Principal Secretary of UDD, personally supervises the weekly conferences of the Job Pressure.

Why the one-year-delay in consolidation?

When requested as to why the state authorities had not instantly notified the consolidation of the fireplace providers, an official stated that the one-year time span until April 2026 could be spent to arrange recruitment guidelines, placing procurement and upkeep methods in place, and structuring the GSFPS Directorate to run the statewide power from Gandhinagar.

As a part of this, the federal government has allotted Rs 2 crore to assemble state HQs for the workplace of GSFPS at Gandhinagar. An extra Rs 1.11 crore has been allotted to create 29 new posts for Head Workplace and Subordinate Places of work of GSFPS.

To strengthen the fireplace providers within the municipalities, the 2025-26 UDD price range has additionally included Rs 2.84 crore for the acquisition of 700 PPE kits, Rs 3 crore for the operation and upkeep of fireplace autos for municipalities, Rs 3.5 crore for quick-response autos at Regional Places of work and Rs 40 crore for the acquisition of turntable ladders.

Lengthy-term plans

Officers privately cede that true consolidation of the fireplace security ecosystem would ultimately have to incorporate the key cities, being a part of a statewide hearth service, however this isn’t a part of the plan for now.

A number of officers are additionally of the opinion that to be able to cut back turnout time, mini hearth tenders on the upcoming hearth stations should be positioned in strategic positions, in distant areas, in order that they are often the primary responders, akin to the tactic utilized by the EMRI emergency ambulance service in Gujarat. Nevertheless, this too, is but to come back up for consideration.