A committee headed by the city’s mayor, with the state’s fire and emergency services minister and the city police commissioner as its members, will review the “effectiveness” of existing fire safety systems in restaurants, hotels, factories and buildings.

The committee will examine if existing licensing systems need tweaking and prepare guidelines to boost coordination between various departments that issue licences and permits.

The state-level committee will submit its report within 30 days. Then, district-level committees, headed by the district magistrate, will have to ensure compliance and submit action-taken reports to the government every month.

The decision comes after a fire at Rituraj Hotel in central Calcutta killed 14 people on April 29.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the fire-ravaged hotel on May 1 and asked the business community to follow fire safety norms or face government action.

On Friday, at a council house meeting of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), mayor Firhad Hakim said the state-level committee would discuss the problems highlighted at the meeting.

Two opposition councillors demanded that the KMC issue trade licences only after an applicant has obtained a nod from the fire services and other concerned agencies.

“The committee will discuss what you are pointing out,” Hakim said.

Many restaurants, bars and lounges that have shut following an order from the KMC have argued that they had a trade licence (certificate of enlistment) issued by the civic body.

KMC officials argued that the certificate of enlistment is issued based on self-declaration by the applicant who wants to open a business. It is issued immediately after receiving the application as part of the ease of doing business scheme that aims to make opening a business in Calcutta seamless. But, the certificate mentions that the applicant will take necessary permissions from all other statutory organisations like the police, the fire services and others.

“After a fire incident, we discovered the establishment lacked a fire licence. The KMC had, however, issued the trade licence,” said an Opposition councillor.

A memo issued by chief secretary Manoj Pant on Thursday announced the formation of the committee.

It mentioned that it will “evaluate the extent of structural deviations from approved building plans and assess compliance with fire safety norms and suggest remedial measures”.

The committee will also “assess the fire safety infrastructure and operational efficacy of emergency response systems in commercial and industrial establishments”.

The state-level committee, which will also be the committee for the Calcutta municipal area, will have the housing minister, the disaster and civil defence minister, the panchayat and rural development minister, the additional director general of police (law and order) and the municipal commissioner of Calcutta as its members.