After 14 individuals lost their lives in the Kamala Mills fire tragedy early on Friday, 29 December, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has faced serious flak, with political leaders even holding it responsible for the “murder of people.”
Mumbai’s BJP president Ashish Shelar told The Quint that the Kamala Mill compound utilised 10 percent more than the allocated floor space index (FSI). He asked the BMC to look into the matter and take action against those guilty.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Mumbai Kirit Somaiya said that the building complexes that have come up in Mumbai’s mill compounds have become death traps. She alleged the the restaurant owners colluded with municipal authorities and violated fire regulations.
Somaiya said that the building ran a pub inside illegally, recalling how 12 labourers had died in fire incidents recently in the western metropolis.
After Somaiya targeted the Shiv Sena-run BMC, Sena MP Arvind Sawant said the BJP leader had a habit of "encroaching" on other's areas but the incident had occurred in his Lok Sabha constituency.
Sawant said there should be a judicial probe to find out the root cause of such an incident.
The fire that started at the rooftop pub ‘1 Above’ spread rapidly through the building, killing 14 people, most of them women, shortly after midnight in a Mumbai’s Lower Parel.
The fire, which also injured 21 people, started around 12.30 am and spread to Mojo Pub on the third floor, one level below, said an official of the Mumbai civic body.
Most of the victims died of asphyxiation, said Avinash Supe, dean of the KEM Hospital where the injured and dead were brought.
(With inputs from PTI)
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