‘Book BMC officials on murder charge’

Opposition members in the state Legislative Council on Monday demanded that an offence of culpable homicide should be registered against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials who have failed to prevent frequent fires at the Deonar dumping ground.

The issue was raised by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde, who said that fires at Deonar dumping ground have been causing lot of health problems to residents in surrounding areas. There is a possibility that the dumping mafia is behind this, as fires have continued even after maintenance contract has been terminated, he said.

Supporting him, other Opposition members too slammed the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP in the BMC, saying that the alliance had failed to prevent fires at Deonar dump due to its negligence.

NCP legislator Kiran Pawaskar said that the BMC had provided Rs 417 crore for the dumping grounds for the year 2015-16. However, only 20 per cent of this amount was spent by the civic body, he said.

“An offence of culpable homicide should be registered against the BMC, who is responsible for fires at Deonar dump. In addition to this, a probe should be held into the contracts given for the maitenance of the dumping ground,” he added.

However, senior Sena legislator Neelam Gorhe blamed the state government for the mess at the Deonar dump.

“Despite several reminders from the BMC, the government did not take any decision about the lease of the dumping ground in the past 15 years. We had also demanded that an inquiry should be held by a retired judge and a white paper should be brought out on the Deonar dump issue,” she said.