Sandeep Ashar lays his hands on an 11-year-old report that exhaustively addresses concerns of building collapses and finds the govt could not care less about it.
Just how serious is the administration in tackling a problem that recurs with frightening regularity in Mumbai? Not at all, if one goes by the manner in which it has been sitting on the recommendations made an expert commitee formed to chart out a strategy to prevent house collapses.
After the city witnessed an unusually high number of house collapses in 1994, the then Mumbai sheriff SK Chaudhury announced the formation of a committee to suggest strategies for future constructions.
It’s been 11 years since the recommendations have been made, but they continue to gather dust and buildings continue to collapse.
The most prominent was the Navare Apartments collapse at Sion in 1994 that killed 27 people., prompting the appointment of a 10-member committee headed by retired justice VS Deshpande and comprising landlords, tenants, government officials and experts from the construction industry.
The committee visited 23 sites, including dilapidated buildings and where structures had collapsed. Among other things, it interviewed tenants and landlords before piecing them all together to formulate a 43-point strategy. The report was submitted to the state government in 1996 and has been languishing ever since.
The panel called for stringent laws and accountability to be fixed on government officials, landlords, tenants and developers to check unauthorised extensions, and tampering with the structure of the building.
It recommended a government-level research on future model of construction to be used in the city considering its proximity to the sea and charted out responsibilities for all involved in construction, repairs and use of a building.
The committee asked for rigorous punishment for those culpable in unauthorised constructions and change of user violations. It further said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation must not allow any additions and alterations without concurring with Mhada officials.
It was, however, a case of love’s labour lost. In fact, the present-day administrators even fail to recall the existence of such a committee.
In the interregnum, several committees came out with piecemeal solutions on the issue, but none that could be used on long-term. Did the sheriff’s committee touch a raw nerve somewhere?
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