Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Saturday,
June 24, 2017.
People live in fear of another explosion as govt fails to
clear Rs 7-cr proposal to repair buildings damaged in blast.
Blood-soaked and fear writ large on his face, 72-yearold
Bhikaji Babadi’s picture in newspapers a day after the boiler blast at a
chemical factory in Dombivali on May 26, 2016, had captured the horrors of the
disaster vividly.
He may have survived the blast, which left 12 dead and
several more injured, but a year on, he continues to live not only with the
scars of the injuries caused to him metal and glass particles had pierced his
body all over but also with administrative apathy, which has denied him and
other victims of the blast the muchpromised compensation.
“Dombivli is going to be next Bhopal. What I have
witnessed is scary and I see no better monitoring after the blast at Probace
Enterprises. The government has done nothing to mitigate our fear or extend aid
to us for the damages we suffered,” said the septuagenarian.
He stays on Manpada Road in Dombivali, around 500 metres
from the Probace factory. Though the cost of his immediate medical treatment
cost was borne by the government, no help came thereafter.
Rajiv Tiwari, who lives in the same building as Babadi,
is also waiting for compensation to repair his damaged ground floor flat, which
bore a major brunt of the blast. While huge cracks have appeared on the wall,
the main door was left broken, window grilles blown away and cupboards dented.
What’s worse, his four-year-old daughter Gauri is a
patient of asthma.
“Every week, I have to take her to the doctor, who has
advised me to change the residence because of air pollution. But I can’t afford
it. Look at the state of my bedroom and kitchen. I fear the ceiling will
collapse, killing us, in the event of another blast,” Tiwari said.
He reminded how Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,
Industry Minister Subhash Desai and Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde had visited
the spot post the blast and promised extend support to the local residents.
But nothing has happened.
Information sought under the Right to Information Act by
Raju Nalawade, secretary of the Dombivali Welfare Association, says that the
local tehsil office has done 2660 panchanamas of the structural units which
that damaged in the blast. The office has also sent a proposal, demanding over
Rs 7 crore from the Chief Minister Relief Fund to undertake repair works in the
damaged buildings in the vicinity. “But this proposal is yet to get the state
government’s clearance,” said a senior official at Thane collectorate office.
Fed up with the failed promises, Bhandup resident
Nandakumar Pawar, whose three sisters live in Dombivali, has filed a Writ
petition in the Bombay High Court after he came across severe air pollution,
chemical leakages and other violations in the area, which is just 45 km from
Mumbai city.
Pawar’s case is against the state government, Maharashtra
Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), the Directorate of Industrial Safety
and Health, The Directorate of Steam Boilers, The District Collector and The
Commissioner of Police.
The petitioner has claimed that while the District
Collector, Thane, was entrusted with the task to conduct the inquiry and give a
report, the same has not been submitted yet.
Pawar also said that he used RTI Act to get information
and was shocked to know that the authorities were well aware of the dangers and
had been issuing notices since 2012 to the industries for violations.
According to Pawar, hazardous material is routinely
stored on the roads and the industries at Dombivali use coal and timber as fuel
for the boilers. As the boilers are installed dangerously, the fuel too is
stored along the road outside the industrial unit, points out the petition.
“The notice threatened prosecution, but the prosecution
never seems to have taken place because instead of lodging FIRs, the MIDC kept
sending only notices,” Pawar said.
The petitioner also demanded closure of illegal
industries. When this reporter went to the office of MIDC executive engineer
Sanjay Nanaware at Dombivali, he was on the way to MIDC headquarters and
refused to respond to questions on phone.
He instead asked this paper to speak to his deputy Manoj
Kulkarni, who, however, refused to respond to the allegations raised in the
petition.
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