By: Musab Qazi The BMC on Tuesday finished clearing rubble from the site of the burnt and collapsed building in Kalbadevi. The debris has been dumped on an empty plot close to the Mumbadevi Temple, and 45 police personnel and eight CCTV cameras have been stationed to keep an eye on the remains. While the police is yet to do a punchanama, the BMC admits that it is unclear how the two agencies will sift through the huge pile of concrete, bricks and cloth. “The punchnama is largely a formality. Neither the police nor the BMC has any machinery to search for people’s belongings in the rubble. And even if we could, there’s no way to ascertain any claim of ownership,” said Sanjivrao Mandlik, senior inspector, L T Marg police station. He added that thus far, no one had come forward with any claims to their belongings. [related-post] Sangeeta Hasnale, BMC’s C Ward Assistant Municipal Commissioner was equally pessimistic about the possibility of finding valuables amid the dirt and stone. “There is 160 truckloads of material lying there. No municipal corporation in the world can possibly have the resources to sift through this amount of debris.” The site that presently houses the debris was, until 2013, a municipal school that had been razed to the ground due to dilapidation, civic officials said. At present, the site is being monitored by 23 personnel from State Reserve Police Force and 22 personnel from the L T Marg police station. A CCTV control room has been set in a shed inside the compound. mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
