The civic authorities are trying to ensure that the only place where you can turn on the gas without a fire-safety licence or a no-objection certificate is your private kitchen.

As many as 18 categories of businesses — from crèches to clinics — will henceforth require licences or no-objection certificates from the fire services department to operate within city limits.

The list was finalised during a meeting on Tuesday between mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and senior government officials.

Burrabazar, Tangra, Topsia, Tiljala and Kasba have been rated the most fire-prone commercial zones of the city. Teams from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the fire service department will visit these areas at regular intervals to check whether traders are complying with fire safety norms.

Until now, getting a trade licence was easy. Applicants would apply for an NOC or a licence from the fire services department and get a trade permit from the CMC just by producing a stamped copy of the application.

Of the 4.76 lakh registered traders in the city, 54,000 received permits during the last fiscal. The CMC earned Rs 30 crore from trade enlistment alone.

The trade lobby said the step was not only impractical but discriminatory, too. “The list has been drawn up arbitrarily. Fire does not discriminate and can break out in a private kitchen, just as it can in an eatery. The CMC should ask every house owner to produce an NOC from the fire service for his/her kitchen at the time of depositing property tax,” the president of the Federation of Traders’ Organisations, Tarak Nath Trivedi, said.