Mumbai : In order to avoid Vakola kind of tragedies, BMC has been time and again asking residents to move out of dangerous buildings, but to no avail.
In fact, in October 2013, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in an affidavit before the High Court had warned that in case of a collapse, the Vakola building would endanger the lives of those residing in a nearby chawl. Incidentally, 6 of the seven people killed in the collapse are from the nearby chawl.
“We had mentioned in the affidavit that in the event the building collapsed it would fall on the nearby chawls and endanger the lives of the residents living there,” said Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte.
In the order dated October 25, 2013, the HC had ruled: “that in the event, any mishap takes place or any untoward incident occurs, the Municipal Corporation will not be held responsible for the consequences qua the petitioner as the petitioner continues to reside in the structure, which the Corporation claims is in ruinous and dangerous state, at her own risk.”
The civic body had issued notices to the nearby buildings and chawls to vacate as the dilapidated buildings would collapse and pose risk to them. “BMC could not provide transit accommodation as the structures to which notices were issued on March 6 were on private land,” said H East Ward Officer Ajitkumar Aambi. Additional Commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said, “We are considering legal opinion on who is responsible for the deaths due to the collapse. The structure did not have an occupational certificate. We had sent a notice to the occupants in 2007 asking them to vacate the structure.”The BMC had declared the seven storeyed structure as dilapidated in 2008 and asked the residents of Shankar Lok to vacate it. However, a resident of the building, Sandhya Srivardhan, had challenged the decision of the BMC in the High Court and a stay on the evacuation was given. Senior Police Inspector of Vakola police station said, “No FIR has been registered so far. As the matter was sub-judice, we are waiting for those papers to be submitted by the BMC. After the BMC submits the documents, necessary action will be taken.”
Sachin Unhalekar
