Two months after the Dockyard Road building collapse, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said it was unlikely to name more staffers in connection with the incident.
On September 27, the four-storey structure crashed, killing 61 persons. The police arrested six BMC employees after the collapse. Ashok Mehta, a developer-decorator whom the BMC had allotted space on the ground floor, was also arrested for allegedly tampering with the building’s structural elements.
The civic body is yet to complete its administrative inquiry into the incident. A two-member panel, comprising additional municipal commissioners Rajiv Jalota and Mohan Adtani, is probing the collapse and has sought one more month to complete it.
“The inquiry is more about administrative aspects — why didn’t the employees act on complaints against Mehta for allegedly weakening structure. We may not blame more officials for the crash now,” said a senior civic official, requesting anonymity.
In 2011, BMC served a notice to Mehta, who was alleged of tampering with structural members like columns/ beams of the structure. The employees, who dealt with the complaints on the weakening building between 2008 and 2011, have been blamed for not following up the matter.
Following the building collapse, the police arrested deputy superintendent market Prithviraj Chavan, 41, assistant engineer Rahul Gajanan Jadhav, 34, and market inspector Jamal Abdulla Kazi, 57 in the case.
On October 29, the police arrested Abdul Kadir Kasam Shaikh, Ismail Umar Chand Shaikh and Dinesh Kumar Yadav – employees of market department. Shaikh has retired whereas Ismail was suspended after the collapse. Yadav was working as the chief inspector at the market department of the BMC. The municipal corporation had declared inquiry against 18 of its staffers. Only six were booked.
Local corporator Yamini Jadhav demanded that the BMC take strict action against senior officials.
“All those who were arrested are low-rank officials. The corporation should crack down on senior officials too,” she said.
Shiv Sena corporator Jadhav had demanded strict action against senior officials, including additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar over the building collapse. Mhaiskar had said that she had not handled any file relating to repair/ redevelopment of the building.
Colossal tragedy
33 Age of the BMC’s Dockyard Road building
61 Persons dead
21 Number of tenants
30 Persons injured
Duration of rescue operation 48 hour 30minutes
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