In light of the Dockyard Road building collapse and other such incidents in the recent past, the state government is under consideration to come out with a proposal to hold the concerned civic corporation accountable for negligence. However, the government is also of the view that auditing of all the existing building will not be possible for any of the civic bodies.
The BMC-owned building collapsed in the early hours of Friday that left 13 people dead and dozens injured. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan convened a high-level meeting in the morning to review the relief work going on at the spot after the incident.
“The meeting was all about the relief and rehabilitation work as the priority of the government was to save the lives of the people. But the issue of fixing responsibility could not be avoided,” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
“After the completion of the relief work, we are considering to come out with a mechanism that will hold officers of the concerned civic corporation responsible for such accidents,” the officer added.
A sudden spurt in the cases of building collapse has become a cause of concern for the state government. This year alone, many cases including Thane, Mumbra, Mahim and now Dockyard Road have claimed lives of many citizens.
However, chief secretary Jayant Kumar Banthia is of the opinion that the building collapse in Thane was a different issue and cannot be combined with this. “The building of Dockyard Road is owned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), while the Thane building which collapsed some months ago was an illegal one,” said Mr Banthia, adding, “The incident is no doubt very serious and hence, all the possible help was made available to the BMC to save lives.”
On the issue of negligence on the part of the BMC, the chief secretary replied that in this case, the capacity of any corporation couldn’t be ignored. “It is impossible for any corporation to conduct audit of all the buildings,” Mr Banthia said.
He informed that the building was of C-2 category, which means that it can be used for residential purpose, but needed immediate repairing. The estimation for repair work was also ready with the BMC.