BMC did not act on MPCB notice
The Bhanushali Farsan Mart fire could have been averted if the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would have acted on the notice of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). A month before the fire mishap could even occur, the MPCB had sent a notice to the BMC to disconnect light and water supply of Khairani Road manufacturing units, the place where Bhanushali Farsan Mart gutted in fire claiming 12 lives. MPCB Regional Officer (Mumbai) M R Lad said, “Just a month back we had issued a notice to the BMC to cut the supply of power and water of these units since we had received plenty of complaints from its residents and after conducting a thorough survey we observed several violations taking place in this area.”
However, Ajit Kumar Ambi, Assistant Commissioner of BMC, Kurla ward, accepted the fact that the notice was sent by the MPCB, but was for some other unit and not for Bhanushali farsan mart.
“In addition, no complaint was made by any citizen, about the manufacturing units situated on Khairani road. Also as the occupier or the owner did not apply for licence apart from registration of employees the civic corporation was unaware of the business activity,” added Ambi.
In addition, the local activist and members of Swachh Chandivali raised the alarm much earlier about the harmful and dangerous manufacturing units to the MPCB and the BMC, but the authorities turned a blind eye to the entire episode.
S L Dhingra, resident of Chandivali and a member of Swachh Chandivali association and also a professor of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), fighting against the Khairani Road polluted manufacturing units stated several letters have been written to the authorities, but so far no action has been initiated.
"There are more than hundreds of such units which are operating illegally and affecting the vicinity people residing near these factories. People from all age group are suffering from asthma and breathing problem but due to corporation officials working hand in glove with the owners of these manufacturing units they are operating without any problem, " said Dhingra.