DNA View | Mumbai Building Collapse: Be proactive, not reactive

The 24 deaths in Bhendi Bazaar building collapse on Thursday will, as usual, lead to some knee-jerk reactions from the government. There will be fresh drives to identify dilapidated buildings and drive residents out. And, after a few weeks, everything will be forgotten.

Every monsoon, as Mumbai stalls for at least one day and a building collapses, killing people, the state machinery talks of action but things remain exactly where they were. It’s from this mindset that the minister is talking about action against SBUT, the owner of the crashed building, and did not evict residents despite notices issued in 2011.

The state agencies, instead of being reactive, need to understand why residents don’t evacuate buildings even at the risk of death. Filthy living conditions, uprooting from one’s place of business, and the uncertainty of getting permanent housing are why they refuse to leave decrepit buildings. Successive state governments have been talking about cluster development for years now. It’s about time it is acted upon. We can no longer afford to make this an annual tragedy.