Mumbai:
Three Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officers have been arrested in connection with the building collapse in Mumbai's Mazgaon area on Friday. Deputy Superintendent PS Chavan, Assistant Engineer Rahul Jadhav and Market Inspector Jamaluddin Kazi have been arrested by the Mumbai Police. Mr Chavan was originally a complainant in the case.
On Friday, a five-storey building came crashing down early in the morning. The collapse killed 61 people. The building was listed for major repairs but those repairs had not been carried out.
The building was owned by the BMC itself. The Mayor of Mumbai has promised an enquiry into the delay of repairs and said that anyone found responsible will be dealt with in the strictest manner. A decorator who had a godown on the ground floor had been arrested for alleged illegal alterations. He has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
But all of this is hardly any compensation for those who have lost everything they had. This is the seventh building to have collapsed in the last six months in Mumbai and Thane and hundreds of lives have been lost. Bu the most important question is, with nearly 950 very dangerous buildings in Mumbai alone, how many more collapses will it take for the authorities to act?