Heavy rains crippled city, admits CM

"I have instructed the concerned officials to have better co-ordination between the BMC, Navy, Central and Western Railways, BEST, MTNL and police," he said. Further, he has directed the officials to convene meetings of the Disaster Management Group at least twice in a year, including one before the monsoon, he disclosed.

"In fact, the Government machinery failed as the city registered its heaviest rainfall since 1974. The rainfall recorded at Colaba was 162.7 mm between July 11 and 12 and 187 mm between Wednesday and Thursday. Likewise, in Santacruz, it was recorded as 81 mm and 351 mm respectively. Normally, the rainfall recorded during this time of monsoon is hardly 30 to 40 mm," he pointed out. So far, the Colaba and Santacruz observatories have recorded 81 per cent and 79 per cent of the season’s average rainfall during a year, Deshmukh said.

He also said the Government has undertaken evacuation of slumdwellers on the banks of the Mithi river in North East Mumbai as it has crossed the danger mark. "So far, about 1,550 of the 2,500 families have been evacuated from the place," he said. Further, 350 families near the Vakola nullah will also be removed at a safer place, he added.

The Army and Navy are helping the State Government to evacuate the slumdwellers. Three squads of Navy have been deployed to deal with the situation if the floodwaters from the Mithi river endangers them in the adjoining areas. However, the slumdwellers were not co-operating with the Government machinery, he lamented.

Deshmukh also convened a meeting of MLAs, Opposition leaders and civic officials to deal with the situation during the monsoon. "The MLAs stressed on an immediate ban on the use of polythene and removal of potholes by the civic administration,"he said and added that instructions had been issued to the authorities for the purpose.

He said the government was helpless in preventing the use of plastic bags unless it gave an alternative to the people. In order to find a solution to the problem, the Government will soon hold a meeting of all political parties, he informed.

Deshmukh denied that the reclamation at the mouth of the Mahim creek for the Worli-Bandra sea link was the reason behind the flooding of many areas in Central Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Ghatkopar witnessed the worst landslide tragedies on Wednesday.

At around 4.25 pm, a huge portion of the hill range at Ekta Nagar caved in, and the falling rock boulders literally squashed all the hutments located at the bottom of the hill.

The landslide is believed to have been triggered with a loud explosion inside a public toilet located on top of the hill. According to the fire officials, the explosion, probably due to intense gas pressure in a choked drainpipe, let loose a hail of rocks on the hutment colony.

“There was a loud burst like a fire-cracker in the public toilet on the cliff and suddenly huge boulders started raining from the sky. Large mass of stones began sliding down and crushing our hutment,” recalled Mohammed Sheikh, a survivor, “Some of the rocks were as large as five feet long and weighing a few hundred kilograms,” he added.

The entire scene was choc-a-bloc with rescue operators, firemen, politicians, police, home guards and the Army. The impact of nature’s demolition was so intense that the entire hutment colony was completely wiped out.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Home Minister Kripa Shankar Singh, and local MLA and corporators rushed to the spot to gauge the limit of nature’s fury.

“Nearly 150 huts are still under the debris,” said a worried Bhujbal. In fact, till Thursday morning only 40 per cent of the rocks were removed. Since there was no proper route for the JCBs to enter the spot, the authorities had to demolish 30 huts and shanties to make way for the rescue operations.

An Army group of 80 jawans, led by Major A S Negi, was also assisting the rescue work today.

The Maharashtra Government has declared ex-gratia compensation of Rs 25,000 to the kin of the deceased and Rs 10,000 each to the injured victims.

Most of the victims were `sadhu babas’ who lived on alms. Others doubled as door-to-door vendors selling brooms and other household items.

According to another survivor, Mohammed Shafiq, most of the residents of ill-fated settlement hailed from Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and Gulbarga in Karnataka. Majority of them are related or were distant cousins.

According to Shafiq, the toll was high because most of the residents of the area were in their houses due to torrential rains. On an average there were six inmates in each shanty.

A pall of gloom hung over the morgue at Rajawadi Hospital this morning. Relatives of the deceased were waiting for their turn to collect the bodies of their kith and kin.

The wailing of women and whirring of the ambulance siren rented the air.

In the evening, two more bodies had arrived at the hospital in a police van. Not a single post-mortem is to be conducted apparently as all the bodies will be directly sent for cremation. As both the cemeteries at Vikhroli and Jari Mari are flooded, the CM has granted permission for the final rites to be conducted at the Gaibansha Darga in Narayan Nagar, which is still under construction.

Ironically, in 1988 a similar landslide tragedy had occurred a little away from the spot in Azad Nagar, leading to eight deaths. But still, the encroachments continued, thereby `eating’ into the hill which had been standing there for the last several million years.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today conceded that there was total lack of co-ordination between the authorities, supposed to participate in the crisis management group, during the incessant rains that created havoc in the city on Wednesday.

He was addressing a press conference after a high level meeting convened by him to take stock of the situation. He refused to fix responsibility for the failure of the government machinery on anyone saying that the primary motive of the Distaster Management Plan was to minimise the reponse period during a calamity. However, he conceded that there was lack of co-ordination between the officials when the reporters quizzed him.

"I have instructed the concerned officials to have better co-ordination between the BMC, Navy, Central and Western Railways, BEST, MTNL and police,"he said. Further, he has directed the officials to convene meetings of the disaster management group at least twice in a year, including one before the monsoon,he disclosed.

"In fact, the government machinery failed as the city registered heaviest rainfall since 1974. The rainfall recorded at Colaba was 162.7 mm between July 11 and 12 and 187 mm between Wednesday and Thursday. Likewise, in Santacruz, it was recorded as 81 mm and 351 mm respectively. Normally, the rainfall recorded during this time of monsoon is hardly 30 to 40 mm,"he pointed out. So far, the Colaba and Santacruz observatories have recorded 81 per cent and 79 per cent of the season’s average rainfall during a year,Deshmukh said.

He also informed that the government has undertaken evacuation of slumdwellers on the banks of the Mithi river in North East Mumbai as it has crossed the danger mark. "So far, about 1550 off 2500 families have been evacuated from the place,"he said. Further, 350 families near the Vakola nullah will also be removed at a safer place, he added.

The Navy and Military are helping the state government to evacuate the slumdwellers. Three squads of Navy have been deployed to deal with the situation if the flood water from the Mithi river endangers the slumdwellers in the adjoining areas. However, the slumdwellers were not co-operating with the government machinery, he lamented.

Deshmukh also convened a meeting of the MLAs, opposition leaders and civic officials to deal with the situation during the monsoon. "The MLAs stressed on an immediate ban on the use of polythene and removal of potholes by the civic administration,"he said and added that the instructions had been issued to the authorities for the purpose.

He said the government was helpless in preventing the use of plastic bags unless it gave an alternative to the people. In order to to find a solution to the problem, the government will soon hold a meeting of all political parties, he informed.

Deshmukh denied that the reclamation at the mouth of the Mahim creek for the Worli-Bandra sea link was the reason behind the flooding of many areas in Central Mumbai.