Devendra Fadnavis: Maharashtra to frame law to regulate hookah parlours

Devendra Fadnavis

The Maharashtra government will bring a legislation to regulate hookah parlours in the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today. He was replying to supplementary queries raised on a calling attention motion moved by the Congress' Sanjay Dutt on the fire that swept through two pubs in the Kamala Mills compound on December 28 and killed 14 people.

Replying to queries, Fadnavis said that hookah parlours were a major source from where intoxicants reached the youth and, currently, there was no law to regulate it. Fadnavis, while speaking in the Legislative Council, also said the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act would be amended to facilitate transfer of civic employees between corporations.

"The government will amend the laws governing municipal corporations in the state to facilitate the transfer of civic employees of the same class between municipal corporations," he said in reply to a query. He added the government was open to a comprehensive "terms of reference" for the committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court that will probe the Kamala Mills fire.

"The three member committee will be headed by a retired judge of the High Court and will include the principal secretary of the Urban Development department and a town planning expert," he said. The current terms of reference of the probe panel was to find out violations committed by the restaurant, officials of the BMC, the mill owners and violations of fire safety norms, he said.

The committee will have to submit its report within three months from commencing work, he said. Fadnavis further stated that the BMC had now set up 30 units to check and inspect premises for compliance of fire safety norms. Replying to a query on tenements for mill workers, Fadnavis said an amendment made to the Development Control Rules by the previous government had left no surplus land to construct these tenements.

Fadnavis informed the House that IT companies had used just 43 per cent of the Floor Space Index for IT-related works allotted to them against against the stipulated 80 per cent. "If the companies are not using the allotted FSI for the intended purpose, then the government shall recover the charges based on the Ready Reckoner rates and action shall be taken against such companies," he said.

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