Lack of coordination, indiscipline, slow response led to tragedy

A top civic official from BMC, who did not wish to be quoted said, “A uniformed service has to be vision-driven and not demand-driven. They are trained to listen and obey their seniors, not to keep raising their demands.”

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The panel has also pointed out a non-adherence to standard-operating-procedure (SOP) within the brigade. Though officials say that an SOP is in existence and is introduced in the training manual, the brigade relies heavily on on-ground experiences and practices.

“There has to be a formalised system. We have given the department three months to come up with a new, modified SOP,” a panel member said.

The report further states that four senior officials were on leave on the day of the incident, which hampered the rescue and there was no incident response system in place as mandated by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). “Eye-witness accounts also reveal that as senior officials got stuck inside the debris, the fire brigade’s attention towards fire-fighting got diverted,” the report adds.
Coordination woes

Since the disaster management department did not receive any information on the exact equipment required at the spot, the department sent more than what was required — leading to problems in rescue operations, the report added.

It also noted a delay in ambulances reaching the spot. “Lack of co-ordination, shortage of manpower and delay in transferring messages through the wireless resulted in wastage of the crucial golden hour,” the report said.

According to the report, despite the fact that a hotline exists between disaster management and fire departments, there isn’t enough staff to handle it. The control room also couldn’t function properly due to shortage of manpower.

The committee has singled out the public relations department of the civic body for incoherent information dissemination at the time of the accident. “No representative of the PR department was present at the accident spot or disaster management department at the headquarters,” the report stated. “No official from PR department came to the Disaster Management premises at the time of the incident, causing delay in information dispersion to the media,” the report noted.

The PR department in-charge’s efforts to salvage the situation, while on vacation, didn’t help and his deputy failed to perform his duty, it further added.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com