BMC to pay Rs50k to kin of woman who died after falling in trench

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has assured the Bombay high court that it will tell its contractor to pay a compensation of Rs50,000 to the legal heir of the senior citizen Mariamma Naidu, 60, who had lost her life after falling into a trench in Wadala in January.

The division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RG Ketkar directed the representative of the contractor (who had dug the road and left the trench unguarded) to deposit a demand draft of Rs50,000 with the registrar general of the high court.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Khar resident Indur Chhugani, who had sought for criminal proceedings to be initiated against the officers of BMC and contractors who  left trenches open, posing a threat to the life of citizens.

Accordingly, earlier, the BMC had informed the court that it has charged three BMC engineers for dereliction of duty. The three officials are deputy engineers Satish Mehta and Sandip Kamble and junior engineer Vijay Kasture. The trench was dug by civic contractors to replace the underground Storm Water Drain (SWD) line in Wadala.

The bench while asking the contractor to pay compensation also noted that there were several places in the city where there is no cover on manholes.