Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday held a review meeting with the Fire, Civil Defence and Prison Departments and issued the following necessary guidelines:
The Civil Defense Department has played an important role in maintaining peace, harmony and security in society. At present, Civil Defence units are formed in 27 districts of the state. Keeping in view the importance and utility of Civil Defence, it is necessary to extend it to all 75 districts.
Civil Defence units should be reconstituted in all the urban bodies of the state. In this way more than 750 civil defence units will be functional in the state. Necessary action in this regard should be completed as soon as possible in coordination with the Home Department. Necessary financial incentives will be provided by the state government for the smooth implementation of new units.
The state cabinet has recently approved its new prison manual. This will be a significant effort towards prison reforms. We have to make concerted efforts to establish prisons as better centres of reform. “Open Prison” and “High Security Prison” can be useful in this regard. In this regard, space should be identified and a proposal should be made.
The list of prisoners who have been lodged for more than 14 years in all the jails of the state should be prepared and made available. The list should also contain separate details of sick, minors, female and handicapped prisoners.
We all have experienced the utility of the Fire department in case of fire. The Fire department personnels’ spirit to serve is inspiring. Keeping in view the need of the future, there is a need to establish the Fire department as a ‘disaster management and emergency service.’ The State Model Fire and Emergency Bill should be prepared on the lines of the Central Government’s Model Bill on Maintenance of Fire and Emergency Service, 2019.
In multi-storey buildings, there should be adequate fire safety arrangements in every case. According to the policy of Ease of Doing Business, provision of self-certification by the owner of the building every six months, provision of fire safety officer according to the type of buildings and the system of annual third-party audit should be implemented.
Efforts should be made to establish a special fund for the safety of firefighters and the availability of high-quality fire fighting equipment.
At present, the security system of cities has become smart with the Integrated Traffic Management System installed under the Smart City Project. Efforts will have to be made to make more cities ‘safe’ by doing financial management through convergence with inter-departmental coordination. Prepare and submit the necessary proposal in this regard.