19 students killed in a deadly fire at Surat - BSNLEU pays homage and demands the government to take preventive steps to avoid such killings.

It is heart rending to know that 19 students are killed in fire, that engulfed a commercial complex at Surat, yesterday. All of them are teenagers and were attending a coaching class, located in the commercial complex, called Takshashila Arcade. 16 of these students are girls. About 12 students jumped off from the 3^rd and 4^th floors to save their lives. Among them, 3 died and the others were injured. The commercial complex, Takshashila Arcade, is having 3 storeys. Only one storey is permitted by the authorities and the remaining two storeys are constructed illegally. It has also been found that all norms of safety, have been violated. The Takshashila Arcade has been a virtual ‘death trap’ for the people. Similar ‘death traps’ are existing in almost all the cities in the country with no norm of safety being followed. It is the duty of the government to intervene and to ban all such ‘death traps’. BSNLEU pays homage to the students killed in the Surat fire and conveys it’s heartfelt condolences to their families.