Opposition blames TMC for Bagree Market fire, demands probe

Indian fire fighters spray water to extinguish a fire at Bagree market building in Kolkata. Pic/PTI

The opposition BJP and the Congress on Sunday blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for its failure to prevent incidents of fire in multi-storey buildings, and demanded an immediate probe into the blaze that gutted the congested Bagree Market here. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said there should be an independent inquiry to ascertain if there was any conspiracy or sabotage behind the massive blaze that ravaged over 1,000 business establishments in the market on Canning Street.

"A proper independent probe should be instituted into the fire incident to cover all aspects, including the conspiracy or sabotage angle," Ghosh said. He said incidents of fire have been on rise in the city as the police and administration are "turning a blind eye to violation of fire safety norms", since the time of the erstwhile Left Front government, which the Mamata Banerjee regime, too, has failed to change.

Ghosh said a BJP team, led by its national secretary Rahul Sinha, will visit the Bagree Market and talk to the traders. West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Chowdhury said, "Mamata Banerjee wanted to turn Kolkata into London, but everything has turned topsyturvy under her government, with the recent Majerhat bridge collapse and this devastating fire incident." The opposition also alleged negligence on the part of the state government to monitor the condition of bridges in the state on a regulars basis.

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