Chargesheet Against 1 Above, Mojo’s Bistro, Owners of Kamala Mills

An inquiry committee is also being set up to probe the Kamala Mills fire.

Mumbai police, on Wednesday, 28 February, filed a chargesheet against 1 Above, Mojo's Bistro and the owners of Kamala Mills in the Kamala Mills fire incident, reported ANI. A fire broke out in the Kamala Mills complex on 29 December, killing 14 people and injuring 12 others.

An inquiry committee is also being set up to probe the fire, the alleged violation of Floor Space Index (FSI) rules and the misuse of land by textile mills owners in the city, announced the Maharashtra government on Tuesday.

Maharashtra government has submitted suggestions of names for the inquiry committee to the Bombay High Court in a sealed cover, reported ANI. The high court will announce the names on 19 March.

According to a Hindustan Times report, Maharashtra Chief Minister David Fadnavis announced that the probe report will be tabled in the state legislature. The inquiry committee will include a retired secretary of the urban development department and an architect, and will be headed by a retired judge of the Bombay High Court.

Fadnavis also announced that the government has come across violation of the FSI allotted for IT firms on mill land a probe panel will investigate that as well. He said that loss faced by the government will be recovered and action taken against those responsible, reported Hindustan Times.

Slamming the Congress and the NCP for changing policy and depriving mill workers from rightful houses on such land, Fadnavis said:

Until 1999, mill owners were compelled to surrender one-third of the land to BMC and to MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) for housing. The rules were tweaked in 2001 as a result of which the BMC and MHADA did not get even an inch of the usable 50,000 sqm at Kamala Mills. We changed the rules again, but by then the private mills had been developed.

However, the mill workers' organisation is not too pleased with Fadnavis. According to an HT report, their statistics show that the change in rules meant at least 45,000 fewer houses.

Datta Iswalkar, president of Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti told HT that they were were expecting 200 acres of land but they got only 70 acres.

It is not that the new government is working in favour of the workers. It has announced it will change the DCR again, but the resolution has not been received even after six months of the announcement. Many mills have been using the premises for commercial activities by keeping the mill structure intact to pretend that they continue with the mills business and there was no need to transfer the land to the government. Why did the BMC not act against them?

Datta Iswalkar

While Fadnavis did not clarify whether the probe will be under the Commission of Inquiry Act or not, sources from the Law and Judiciary Department have said the decision will be taken when the terms of reference of the probe get framed, reported HT.

(Hey lady, what makes you laugh? Do you laugh at sexism, patriarchy, misogyny, or other 'sanskari' stereotypes? This Women's Day, join The Quint's Ab Laugh Naari campaign. Pick up that beer, say cheers, and send us  photographs or videos of you laughing out loud at [e-mail].)