A committee set up to review the effectiveness of existing fire safety systems in restaurants, hotels, factories and buildings will prepare a draft policy and submit it to the state cabinet within 30 days, urban development minister Firhad Hakim said after the panel’s first meeting on Wednesday.

The committee asked police, fire services, municipal affairs, disaster management and panchayat departments to suggest improvements to fire preparedness in public places.

The state-level committee, headed by Hakim, has the ministers of state’s panchayat, fire services, housing and disaster management departments as its members. Calcutta’s police commissioner and municipal commissioner, and the additional director-general of police (law and order) are also members of the committee.

“All relevant departments will give suggestions. We will prepare a policy so that all these government departments can work together to deal with a fire incident,” said Hakim. “The disaster management department will give suggestions on how they want to manage a disaster. The panchayat department will give suggestions because there is a lot of development taking place in panchayat areas.”

Sources said hotels and restaurants are mushrooming in panchayat areas surrounding Calcutta and other municipal areas of Bengal.

“The municipal commissioner of Calcutta — the member-convenor of the committee — will compile a report based on the suggestions, which will be submitted to the cabinet,” an official said.

The panel’s mandate includes examining if existing licensing systems need tweaking and preparing guidelines to boost coordination between departments that issue licences and permits.