Rajya Sabha condoles deaths in Delhi fire tragedy

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha on Monday mourned the death of 43 workers in a devastating blaze in Delhi's Rani Jhansi Road area, while praying for speedy recovery of those seriously injured in the unfortunate incident.

The incident took place on Sunday morning when fire broke out in a factory where workers were sleeping.

The members of the Upper House observed silence as a mark of respect to the dead, mostly from Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The House expressed concerns over lack of safety measures in the factories and industrial establishments.

"The loss of so many precious lives and injury to persons in this tragic incident is very unfortunate and painful," Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said.

He stressed on taking measures to prevent such tragic occurrences in future.

Expressing concern over the loss of lives, CPI leader Binoy Viswam said that lives of the poor had no value in the country and demanded measures to be in place for safety of workers.

BJP leader and House member Vijay Goel said that many buildings have come up in the city in violation of safety norms and pose grave threats to the lives of the citizens. He said that a comprehensive plan should be made to ensure that such incident does not take place in future.

Highlighting the impending danger, Goel said that almost half of the buildings in Chandni Chowk area are in dilapidated condition and are a safety threat.

"We should not get into blame game but we have to fix responsibility at the same time. We have to work on measures so that such incidents do not take place in future," Goel said.

Aam Aadmi Party leader in the House Sanjay Singh narrated how workers who lost their lives lived in very poor condition. He said that all the concerned agencies such as Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and MCD should take necessary steps to ensure such accidents do not happen again.