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Kamala Mills fire: Enquiry commission seeks clarification from three BMC departments

Fire, health and building proposal departments of BMC will have to provide oral explanation along with supporting documents if any to the enquiry committee by July second week.

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The enquiry committee, formed by the state government, consisting a retired chief justice and two other members to look into the fire caused at the Kamla Mills premises, has sought clarification from three department's of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), regarding the no-objection-certificate (NOC) issued to run the two restaurants. The fire had claimed 14 lives and left several injured.

Fire, health and building proposal departments of BMC will have to provide oral explanation along with supporting documents if any to the enquiry committee by July second week. The committee has also called owners, licensees and conductors of the two restaurants — 1Above and Mojo's Bistro — for clarification.

The three-member enquiry committee has listed 11 chronological developments while giving NOC by these three BMC departments. The committee found that the BMC's fire department had given NOC for operating 1Above even prior to the approval being granted by the building proposal department for the use of the premises as a restaurant. Similarly, the health department had also given its NOC prior to the permission granted by the building proposal department. These permissions should have given after the building proposal department's NOC.

The observations made by the committee with the available information, prima facie, suggest that the NOC issued by the Fire department for 1Above restaurant on February 10, 2017, did not consider the relevant conditions imposed by the same department while issuing an earlier NOC on November 26, 2016. The committee also found that the building proposal department had hurriedly given permissions for additions and alteration in the building premises of 1Above, under ease of doing business.

The committee is headed by retired chief justice AV Savant and two other members — Vasant Thakur, an architect on one of the high court panels, and K Nalinakshan, a former chief secretary. The committee will submit its first report on or before August 31 to the Bombay High Court.

The panel is inquiring if there was any violation of norms by the owners of the land or the restaurants, whether there was any dereliction of duty on the part of the civic body and government officials. The committee will also recommend measures to be taken to avoid such incidents from occurring in the future.

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