Rajkot, the former capital of Saurashtra in Gujarat, where Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi spent seven formative years, is in the news for the wrong reasons.
Twenty-seven lives were lost in a horrific tragedy on 25 May at the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot. The investors of the gaming place were different from those who owned the land, and together they had outsourced the operations to another firm, Raceway Enterprises, to carry out the day-to-day business.
Taking suo motto action, the High Court of Gujarat castigated the state government—”Have you gone blind? Did you fall asleep? Now we do not trust the local system and the state government”.
In its obiter dicta comments, the court observed that all the municipal commissioners, from when the TRP Game Zone was set up in 2021 until the fire incident, should be held accountable for the tragedy.
The government went into a tailspin, with the incumbent police and municipal commissioners being transferred, and seven other officials suspended. An SIT was constituted to fast-track the investigation and arrest all those involved in the accident. The tragedy took place due to the unholy nexus between the owners and those meant to regulate the safety norms.
Investors, owners and operators
While the co-owner and main accused Prakashchand Hiran alias Prakash Jain died in the fire, the SIT has arrested Dhaval Thakkar, another owner of the property, Kirtisinh Jadeja and Ashok Jadeja, who owned the land, Yuvrajsinh Solanki and Rahul Rathod of Raceway Enterprises, and the manager of the TRP Game Zone Nitin Jain. They have been charged with culpable homicide (not amounting to murder) under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of life.
Later, the same charges were applied to four of the suspended Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) officials— MD Sagathiya, the Town Planning Officer, Assistant Town Planning Officer Mukesh Makwana, Gautam Joshi, Assistant Town Planner, and Rohit Vigora, fire officer.
The suspension notifications also reveal the diffusion of responsibility.
Nine suspensions, four departments
The suspension orders were issued by four departments in Rajkot. Just before his transfer, former Municipal Commissioner Anand Patel signed the suspension orders for Assistant Engineer Jaydip Chaudhary and Assistant Town Planner Gautam Joshi, for taking no action against the TRP Game Zone despite the operators not having sought any clearance for their structure, a shed of tin sheets and steel frames. Later the government also suspended Sagathiya and Makwana.
The Police department suspended two inspectors—VR Patel, the station house officer of the Rajkot Taluka under whose jurisdiction the game zone came, and NI Rathod of the licensing branch.
In the suspension orders issued by the Roads and Buildings Department, it is alleged that Executive Engineer MR Suma approved Raceway Enterprise’s application without conducting an on-site verification of the plan submitted by the applicant. Executive Engineer Paras Kothiya allegedly did not go for on-site verification despite instructions from his department.
Vigora was suspended as he failed to take into account the seriously compromised fire safety norms in this game zone in the posh area of Rajkot.
This wasn’t the first time that a fire incident took place at the gaming zone. In September 2023, a few thermocol sheets caught fire. The fire department has carried out an inspection, but it failed to ensure the necessary compliances.
The Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel has rightly promised the strictest action and said that “no one will be spared,” but the basic question remains: Who is responsible? Should the CM, DM, or the mayor take the blame? Or should it be the municipal commissioner, police commissioner, or the head of fire safety? Are they all culpable or none of them?
The absent mayor
In this entire discourse of suspensions, arrests and transfers, Rajkot Mayor Nayanaben Pedhadiya and Deputy Kanchan Siddhpura have been missing from action. It is not known to the public whether or not they visited the site, consoled the next of kin of the victims, or held an emergency review meeting to put procedures in place to ensure that such accidents do not recur.
The mayor, as the political head of the municipal corporation, is expected to provide leadership and direction. But that hasn’t been the case in Rajkot. Both the mayor and her deputy have not issued a public statement yet. While her appointment was announced with much fanfare, the mayor’s name isn’t mentioned on the official website of the RMC.
Pedhadiya hasn’t even made any public reference to the tragedy or assured her voters. The public has also not expressed any resentment against her or the ward councillor in whose jurisdiction the fire tragedy took place.
The RMC website has the new commissioner DP Desai’s message on display, but it seems like an old template has been used by simply updating his name and photograph on the page.
The first action of a new commissioner should be to express condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the massive fire. Instead, the only new information shared on the RMC website is about his appointment.
Has the statute made the mayor’s position largely ceremonial? While the intention of the 74th Constitutional Amendment was to transfer functions, funds and functionaries to the third tier, most state governments, including Gujarat, have given effective powers to the commissioners, whose tenure is two to three years. If the municipal, police and fire commissioners were directly working under the mayor there would be a single point of responsibility. And if things go wrong, there’d be one person to take the brickbats.
In a paper on urban governance written by Ramanath Jha, an ex-Maharashtra cadre officer, strong arguments have been given for a directly elected executive mayor in India as the UK, the US, Europe, and Japan.
Running a remote administration in a city from the state headquarters certainly strengthens the position of the CM, but urban governance goes for a toss. The oft-stated argument that resistance comes from the IAS and the IPS is wrong, for the services are aware that they are in a democratic polity where the political executive calls the shots. Whether the political leader is a minister in the state headquarters, or the local mayor is immaterial.
The fact of the matter is that mayors, MLAs and ward commissioners exercise tremendous informal power over the revenue, municipal, fire service and police personnel and other functionaries in their area. However, as per the statute, they stand absolved of any responsibility when things go wrong. And things will go wrong if the ground zero regulators succumb to pressure or look the other way after receiving their share of the pie, or both. And more often than not they are in collusion with each other.
Responsibility of corporations
The RMC has exceptionally performed its non-core functions such as organising marathons and breaking the world record for holding the largest garba dance. However, if these achievements come at the cost of their core functions, then there is a problem.
Our municipal corporations should first fulfil their core functions – the provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and cleanliness, fire safety registration of births and deaths, and building parks, gardens, and primary health facilities.
The city of Rajkot must establish a memorial park to show respect to the victims of combined official apathy. Let 25 May mark the day when the elected leaders and professional city managers sit together and draw up a blueprint to ensure that safety regulations are followed to a T, both in letter and spirit.
Let the mayor ask herself: What the Mahatma would have done if he had been remotely involved in this gruesome tragedy?
Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)