‘Book Mhaiskar, BMC officials for delaying redevelopment’

It may be a case of serious administrative apathy, which could have led to the “man-made” disaster at Dockyard Road. Local corporator Yamini Jadhav, who represents the Dockyard Road area where the ill-fated building collapsed, has accused the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials of being utterly callous towards the building repairs issue. The civic officials not only ignored repeated pleas for repairs, but also turned a blind eye towards illegal alterations in the building, she has alleged. “Since June, the alterations were taking place on the ground floor by M/s Mamamiya Decorators, to whom the ground floor was rented out. The decorator had set up a mezzanine floor in the godown by removing building pillars. Despite repeated complaints that were communicated to the civic markets department, the officials did not act on it, saying the godown had already been locked. They also paid no heed to complaints of illegal parking inside the building premises, which created several hurdles in the rescue operations,” Ms Jadhav said, while speaking at a special civic general body meeting called to discuss the building collapse issue on Saturday. The Shiv Sena corporator further said that the building had been in a dilapidated condition since the year 2000. “Crores of rupees have been spent on restoration works since then. The structure was repaired as recently as two years ago. The sub-standard material used by contractors must have led to the building collapse as well,” she said. Ms Jadhav also demanded filing a case of culpable homicide against the civic officials, including additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar, for being responsible for the mishap. Ms Mhaiskar delayed the redevelopment of the Babu Genu civic market, which led to the building collapse, she alleged.