Indian Express 14.07.2010
BMC panel head seeks squad to survey smallscale units
sharvaripatwa Tags : corporation, survey Posted: Saturday , Apr 17, 2010 at 0208 hrs
Mumbai: A day after a fire killed three people in Santacruz, BMC standing committee chairman and Shiv Sena corporator Rahul Shevale asked the civic administration to set up a special squad for surveying all smallscale units in the city.
“This squad should focus on slum pockets where smallscale industries flourish,” said Shevale.
Fire safety norms are flouted in such areas and it is extremely dangerous for people to work and live there, he said.
Civic officials said the two floors of the commercial establishment gutted on Thursday had been illegally built. The unauthorised construction on the upper floors had exceeded the 14-ft limit for slum buildings, said an official. According to the BMC, despite being a commercial complex, the building was used as a residential complex.
There have been complaints earlier that several commercial establishments in the city were being used as residential buildings and vice-versa, said Assistant Municipal Commissioner M M Kshirsagar. Meanwhile, the fire department has mooted purchase of small fire tenders. “Big fire tenders cannot be taken into smaller lanes,” said chief fire officer Uday Tatkare.
Victims choked to death: report
Postmortem reports of the three people revealed that they died due to suffocation. There were signs of struggle on their bodies which showed that they had tried to find an exit out of the building, said the doctor who conducted the postmortem. The bodies which were dug out from the debris of the warehouse were completely charred. The skin and clothes samples have been sent for chemical analysis. The bodies have been sent to the villages of the victims in Gujarat. ens
