Chandigarh: UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit, called upon the newly recruited firemen in the Fire & Rescue department, MC Chandigarh to come forward and live up to their responsibilities.
As many as 268 firemen, who cleared the examination, were handed over appointment letters by the UT Administrator during a special orientation programme held at Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Bhawan, Sector 38-C, Chandigarh in the presence of Kirron Kher, Member Parliament, Smt. Sarbjit Kaur, Mayor, Sh. Dharam Pal, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator, Chandigarh.
Anindita Mitra, IAS, MCC Commissioner, welcomed the chief guest and all the dignitaries and said that the newly recruits will be imparted rigorous training at various Fire Stations to prepare them to meet out the requirements of peculiar nature of duty as well as to make them able to handle the latest fire fighting machinery and equipments to save the valuable life and property of the General Public of City Beautiful Chandigarh.
She said that the Fire Brigade is also in the process to procure the State of the Art machinery and equipments to cope up with fire fighting challenges in modern constructions and associated materials.
The augmentation of workforce will result in increasing the effectiveness of Fire & Rescue Services in extinguishing fires and protecting the life and property of the citizens, she added.
UT Administrator congratulated the new appointees and said that it is essential to maintain people’s confidence and faith in public service delivery system and it can be achieved through determination, dedication and devotion and asked them to provide responsive administration at the base level stating that Chandigarh MC has always accorded high priority to public service delivery.
UT Administrator said that with the motto of ‘We serve to Save’, every official of this department has onerous task to save the lives and property in case of fire/ disaster and the main purpose is to help those in distress. The fire brigade was founded on the mottos of valour and sacrifice. It is geared to ‘Kill the fire before it kills you’, said the UT Administrator.
Appreciating the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh for providing better opportunities to the citizens as well as youth for speeding up their process to fill up the posts in various wings, the Governor said that it was happy moment to contribute for the dream of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi ji to provide services to 10 lacs youths.
He said that MC has contributed a lot towards making Chandigarh No.1 in every segment.
Kirron Kher, Member Parliament congratulated the newly firemen.
Sarbjit Kaur, Mayor, Chandigarh said that the Fire Brigade started its operations in Chandigarh in 1956 with only one trailer pump, housed in Water Works Complex, Sector-12, Chandigarh. Now the brigade has 197 Fire Personnel and 49 Fire Vehicles in seven Fire Stations which are headed by Station Fire Officers and a Chief Fire Officer under the overall command of Commissioner, MCC.
Though total sanctioned strength of Firemen is 358, presently 98 firemen were working.
She said that the key objective of workforce augmentation is to strengthen the Fire & Rescue Wing of the MC, Chandigarh as the responsibilities of this department has increased manifolds now a days.
In order to achieve this objective, 301 posts of Firemen and 60 posts of Drivers were advertised. The written test for these posts was conducted by the Panjab University Chandigarh, whereas physical test of shortlisted candidates was taken by the MC, Chandigarh.
Dharam Pal, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator said that it is a proud moment for Chandigarh that appointment letters to 268 firemen from different categories have been handed over and said that the Fire and Rescue Wing of MC, Chandigarh is a Multi Hazard Response Unit and has entrusted with the task of Fire Fighting, Rescue and special service operations during emergencies.
Nitin Kumar Yadav, IAS, Secretary Local Govt., Anindita Mitra, IAS, Commissioner, MCC, Dalip Sharma, Senior Deputy Mayor, Anup Gupta, Deputy Mayor, Yogesh Dhingra, Area councilor, other councilors and officers of MCC were also present.