Fire brigade vehicles could not reach there due to narrow streets. (Photo- ANI)
Digital Desk, New Delhi. The entry and exit gates of 'Birch by Romeo Lane' night club, which became a victim of fire in Arpora-Nagoa in North Goa, were narrow. Due to narrow streets, fire brigade vehicles were not able to reach there and their tankers had to be parked about 400 meters away from the spot.
A senior Fire and Emergency Services official said that it was difficult to reach the spot due to narrow lanes, making controlling the fire a difficult task. This club is situated on the banks of Arpora River.
There was no permission to run the club
Sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, Roshan Redkar had told during the day that the club was run by Saurabh Luthra, who had a fight with his partner. They had filed complaints against each other in the Panchayat. We had inspected the place and found that they did not have permission to build the club.
Panchayat had issued notice for demolition
The Panchayat had issued a notice to demolish it, which was stopped by the officials of the Panchayat Directorate. An official said that a shack located on Vagator Beach of club promoters has been sealed. It was built illegally on government land.
On Sunday, distressed relatives and friends of the victims gathered outside the mortuary of Goa Medical College and Hospital, eagerly waiting for information about their relatives. Some of them were from a village in Jharkhand. They said that they would not accept the dead bodies and would demand the nightclub owner to make arrangements to bring the bodies home.
He told that four people from his village used to work as helpers and cooks in the night club. Among them, 24-year-old Pradeep and 20-year-old Vinod Mahato were brothers and residents of Fatehpur village in Lapung, near Ranchi. While another Mohit was a resident of Govindpur village. Another group of five people from Assam were also sitting outside the mortuary.
However, one of them claimed that some of the people killed in the fire were his friends. A senior police officer said it would take a day to identify all the bodies and conduct post-mortem, after which the bodies would be handed over to their relatives.
Opposition parties demand resignation of Chief Minister
The opposition targeted the BJP government of the state over this tragic incident. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter, “This is not just an accident; This is a criminal failure of security and governance.'' The state unit of the Aam Aadmi Party claimed that the Sawant government has lost its moral right to remain in power.
AAP Goa president Amit Palekar, in a post on Twitter, questioned why the government did not take any action against the night club, which allegedly did not follow the rules despite raising the issue in the state assembly. Goa Congress in-charge Manikrao Thackeray also demanded Sawant's resignation and claimed that the club had not taken NOC from the fire department. The Goa Church expressed grief over the deaths in this incident.
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