It is the first week of June and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has not yet come out with the list of dangerous structures in the city. Normally, the civic body comes out with the list of dangerous structures mid-May and asks residents to vacate the most dilapidated buildings.
The monsoon may arrive in the city anytime and it will be difficult for the administration to vacated the dilapidated structures in days to come.
Though Navi Mumbai is a planned city and most of the buildings are not as old as other cities. However, there are a number of CIDCO constructed housing complexes that are dilapidated and dangerous to live in.
Ahead of monsoon, every year, NMMC comes out with a list of dangerous structures and issue a notice for repair or vacate as per the requirement. Last year, the civic body had found 55 structures dilapidated and 23 of them were in extremely bad condition. They were served notice and asked to carry out a structural audit. However, the civic body had to disconnect water and electricity supply as residents failed to comply with the order.
This year, the civic body has not even completed the survey and so residents do not know which structures in the city are dangerous. Not only buildings, but there were also sheds in gardens and public places were found dangerous in the previous surveys. The issue of redevelopment of old and dilapidated buildings has been delayed owing to various reasons and this is one of the reasons, residents are forced to stay in such buildings.
Rajeev Mishra, a social activist from the city said that this is sheer negligence of the civic administration. “People are already dying of coronavirus and the delay in publishing dangerous structures list will make them more vulnerable during the monsoon,” said Mishra. He added that we had Cyclone Nisarga early this week and dangerous structures were equally vulnerable. “This is not a new job that the civic body is not aware of. They do it every year and this year, they should pay more attention as common people are already in trouble due to the corona crisis,” said Mishra, adding that if any unfortunate incident happens during the monsoon, who will be responsible.
Amrish Patnigere, deputy municipal commissioner (anti-encroachment) said that the survey has been delayed due to the corona outbreak. “The list of dangerous structures will be ready by Tuesday,” said Patnigere.
