A day after fireman Deepakkumar Parmar of Maninagar fire station was injured, with multiple fractures in the forearm and was admitted in LG Hospital, caused allegedly after a mishap with a new Firefighting Robot inducted into the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) over a month ago, the Gujarat Corporate Social Responsibility Authority (GCSRA) on Monday said it has ordered a third-party inquiry into the matter.
Speaking to Mirror, M Thennarasan, CEO of GCSRA, said, "We have asked the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) to conduct an impartial inquiry into the incident as a third party to find out what exactly went wrong that caused the injury to the fireman. We have also sought a report from the AMC in the matter. If the company is at fault, we will surely penalise it."
Thennarasan stopped short from calling it a blast or explosion, saying that there was no damage to the inner workings or parts of the robot. He said, "While we are yet to find out what exactly happened, photographs and videos of the machine show no burn damage."
Officials said that there is no CCTV footage of the incident with the AFES since there isn't a camera in the spot where the incident occurred.
The incident is set to become murkier with whispers of corporate rivalry emerging from within the fire department as well as in government circles. On this, the CEO of GCSRA told Mirror, "There are rumours about rivalry between two companies. However, we have purchased the robots through the tender process of the GeM portal which is very transparent." AFES CFO Jayesh Khadia said Parmar will undergo surgery for the injury.