After an outrage by citizens over the chain of mishaps in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is no more willing to take any responsibility in case a tree or its branch collapses. The administration has incorporated a new clause in its contract, according to which, the contractor will be responsible for any mishap due to tree collapses and not BMC officials. In 2018, six people died and 30 people got injured in various tree collapse incidents across the city.
The civic body gives contracts to prune or hack trees, wherever necessary, to avoid any accident in case of a collapse. The BMC even provides tree trimming services to private owners like residential societies. The disaster management department of the BMC received 3,169 calls with regard to a tree or branch collapse in 2018. Despite that, quite a few trees and branches collapsed even though they were trimmed. Most incidents of tree or branch collapse happened during the monsoon season. During monsoons in 2018, 510 tree collapse incidents were reported and as many as 1,077 branch collapse incidents were also reported. Four men and two women died in these incidents while 18 men and 12 women were injured.
The BMC gave a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of a person who died due to a tree collapse and that of Rs 50,000 if a person suffered a lifelong deformity due to the collapse. However, after a series of mishaps like the FOB collapse, building collapses, tree collapse incidences, that have resulted in deaths, the BMC has added a clause in its new contract. According to this clause, the contractor will be solely responsible if any tree or branch falls during the year.
The civic body had given a Rs 90 crore contract to 24 contractors of 24 wards of the city for three years, in 2016. The contract will end on May 15. Jitendra Pardeshi, superintendent of the gardens department said, “The tender procedure is done and now, the civic body is in the process to allot two years of contract for 24 wards for Rs 90 crore.” However, he refused to speak about the responsibility clause. Another senior level officer of the BMC admitted that there is a clause to fix the responsibility on the contractor, but he didn't say if the clause specifies the responsibility of compensation for death or injury.
NOT ON CIVIC BODY’S SHOULDERS
- The civic body gives contracts to prune or hack trees, wherever necessary, to avoid any accident in case of a collapse. The BMC even provides tree trimming services to private owners like residential societies. The disaster management department received 3,169 calls with regard to a tree or branch collapse in 2018.
- Despite that, quite a few trees and branches collapsed even though they were trimmed. During 2018 monsoons, 510 tree collapse incidents were reported and 1,077 branch collapse incidents were reported
- 4 men and 2 women died in these incidents while 18 men and 12 women were injured. BMC gave a compensation of Rs 1L to the kin of a person who died due to a tree collapse.
