Shops okay, not homes: Child rights panel calls for relocation after Gulzar Houz fire tragedy

Hyderabad: After visiting the Gulzar Houz fire accident spot on Tuesday, Telangana Commission for Protection of Child Rights (TGCPCR) chairperson Seetha Dayakar Reddy said that shop owners-cum-residents should consider relocating their houses from the commercial hub near Charminar due to safety concerns.

Expressing her condolences over the tragedy, Reddy told TOI that the commission is in constant touch with the state govt. "We appeal to people staying here to shift their residences from here. It is better to run shops here, but not build residences above them. This way, even if a tragedy of this scale happens, there won't be a loss of human lives. We understand these are ancestral properties, but market associations should hold a meeting regarding this issue, as the area is already facing severe congestion," she said.

The TGCPCR chairperson further said that a lack of fire audits for the establishments has come to the notice of the state govt. "Fire safety is a serious concern, and the urgent need for it in this area has come to the notice of the govt. The commission will be submitting its report to the govt in the coming days," Reddy said.

"When tragedies of this scale happen, there must be full deployment of ambulance and fire services. It seems like even medical and fire personnel were initially unaware of the scale of the tragedy, in which eight children also died due to suffocation and not burn injuries," she further said.

There are around 20 to 25 multi-storied buildings with shops located on the stretch from Charminar to Gulzar Houz Chowrasta, where the incident occurred. Almost all of them are either jewellery or pearl shops.

A jewellery shop owner-cum-resident, whose establishment is right opposite the site of the incident, said, "Around 50% of the shops here also serve as residential buildings. But how can anyone expect us to relocate from here, given the exorbitant land prices outside this area? Currently, even one yard of land in Attapur costs around Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh. For a spacious house of around 200-250 yards, it will cost anywhere between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 3 crore — excluding construction costs. Will the govt provide us with a spacious house, because we cannot stay in the usual 2 BHK houses it allots to economically weaker sections?"

Meanwhile, shops and commercial establishments in the Gulzar Houz area reopened on Tuesday after remaining shut for two days as a mark of condolence for the lives lost.