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Journalism of Courage
Goa nightclub fire tragedy: The tragic Goa nightclub fire incident, in which 25 people lost their lives, raises some crucial questions over the poor implementation of fire safety norms and administrative lapses.
Activist Neelam Krisnamoorthy, who lost two children in the Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy in 1997 in the national capital, called the Goa incident a “deja vu” moment, stressing that those responsible for implementing safety norms ought to have ensured there were no combustible materials, such as fire guns, when there people dancing on nightclub floor.
What I found was that fire safety violations are committed just to either increase their profit and they make money over other people’s dead bodies.
They fill in their coffers by compromising on the fire safety norms. We wanted to bring a change, we wanted to ensure that people don’t lose their precious lives because of these reasons, but I feel I have failed somewhere because in India we have still not given fire safety its due importance.
We have started talking about road safety. There have been changes. But unfortunately there is nothing for fire safety. It’s nearly like three decades after Uphaar.
Krishnamoorthy: One of the main reasons is because people in our country are aware that we can compromise with the fire safety norms and save on money, but even if there is a fire and people die, nothing will happen to them.
There is no deterrence in our country. Give me one fire incident except Upahar, which has reached the Supreme Court. They’re all still somewhere in the trial court or in the high court and this will never reach a final conclusion and unfortunately the only case that reached the Supreme Court was Upahar and what was the message sent? You have money, pay Rs 60 crore to the Delhi government for a trauma centre and you can walk free.
Is this a kind of a deterrence? Why should people bother? Why should anybody bother to ensure that they comply with the fire safety rules and ensure safety for the paying public? Everybody is only interested in making more money to fill in their coffers and continue with the profiteering because they know nothing will happen.
One more thing I have been advocating since 2008 is the need for a special law to deal with the man-made disaster. It’s called prevention of man-made disasters. I’ve met the Law Commission of India and they also have recommended the same. But unfortunately, they have brought in the changes in the CRPC and IPC, but why not include a law where there is a specific punishment.
Krishnamoorthy: There’s been a lot of change even in the infrastructure. Earlier, we didn’t have multiplexes. Now, in shopping malls, they’re at least complying with special fire exits. You can see the fire cylinders there. But why can’t we have retrofitting in other places?
In the Goa case when you have people dancing on the dance floor, you should not have these fire guns and all those palm leaves.
One must ensure that these are non-combustible materials or even if you are using something, they all must be fire-retained.
Krishnamoorthy: It’s a combination of both. People don’t want to do it. That’s absolute negligence. Secondly, the enforcement agencies are really fake. They do not do it. They do not ensure that the rules are enforced in letter and spirit.
Everything is compromised. Every time they go for inspections, it’s compromised. And they let them flout the safety rules.
Krishnamoorthy: Corruption is the main reason and it hasn’t decreased. It has increased, unfortunately.
We all know NOCs are issued for a price and it’s not happening now. The same thing happened in Uphaar. The NOCs were issued for a price by the fire official who was actually on a casual leave.
For that, he was convicted, but unfortunately, he was also allowed to walk free by paying a Rs 10 lakh fine. This is happening all over the country. We need to have a strict check on this.
The owner and the occupier want to compromise because they want to save some money. The person who is responsible for issuing a NOC is compromising because he wants to make some money and issues a NOC.
Krishnamoorthy: I think we have the fire safety laws in place. What we need is enforcement in letter and spirit.
The government must ensure that these rules are followed in letter and spirit. We also need to educate the public about fire safety.
That’s very important. If they’re visiting the building or a public space, maybe they can see if there are fire extinguishers and what is the expiry date? If you go to the public space, just see if the emergency routes which are available, are they blocked? Smaller things can go a long way.
Krishnamoorthy: The value of human life, what the government has put in 1997, the compensation ex-gratia that was awarded was Rs 1 lakh, 30 years later, they made it Rs 2 lakh.
It is not about money, but the point is that they should bring in a kind of regulation that sets the precedent. When the person is compromised on safety, government should sell off all the assets of that company, compensate the victims.
These are the ways forward. Make the fire safety reports public. They should be online.
The person who was last inspected, who was responsible, his name would be there. They should be held responsible. They should be terminated not just a mere suspension. Let them also pay for this because we need to send a strong message.
Goa’s fire safety laws are primarily governed by The Goa, Daman and Diu Fire Force Act, 1986. According to the Act, mandatory fire clearance is required for high-risk buildings, implementing fire prevention measures like alarms, extinguishers, and clear exits, and regulating licensed agencies for installations, with enforcement overseen by the Goa Fire and Emergency Services, emphasising risk assessment and compliance, safety fire guidelines open courtyards are required for placing and operating the fire and rescue appliances in case of emergency.
Advocate Rohit De Sa revealed to PTI that he was engaged in filing a complaint and said, “In fact, I had sent a legal notice regarding these illegal structures. These structures fall under Survey No. 158 and Survey No. 150 of Arpora village.”
“We had lodged a detailed legal representation on 4th November 2025, alerting all relevant authorities about multiple illegal structures on these survey numbers — one of which is where the fire occurred. These illegal structures were built on a salt pan, which is clearly shown in the regional plan, yet no action was taken. Officials have been allowing commercial operations without occupancy certificates,” he told PTI.
