Mumbai: Illegal tea stall in City Kinara hotel gets the boot

The tea stall at City Kinara hotel premises at Kurla West was cleared of utensils on Friday

Health department officials from the local L ward raided the premises of hotel City Kinara at Kurla West on Friday and shut down the illegal tea stall there. This came hours after mid-day's report on January 31 on the illegal structures on the premises of the hotel that saw eight people die in a blaze inside.

Speaking to mid-day, Advocate Godfrey Pimenta, who has been representing the parents of the seven students who died in a fire at the hotel in 2015, said, "Nicholas Almeida of Watch Dog Foundation and I visited the spot on Friday afternoon and to our surprise we saw that the ward officials had taken cognisance of the mid-day report and removed all the utensils from the tea stall. Even the shutter was locked. However, the paan shop is still running there."

"On enquiring with the health officials we got to know that the concrete structure of the tea shop does not come under the purview of the health department and that the building proposal department would have to demolish it," added Pimenta.

The illegal tea stall at hotel City Kinara

He also pointed out that the paan shop is operating within 100 metres of Holy Cross High school, which according to a Bombay HC ruling was illegal. "We will meet the assistant municipal commissioner of L ward and raise our concern. If no action is taken, along with the parents, we will stage a silent protest against the civic officials. We want all the illegal structures on the hotel premises to be demolished," he said.

Almeida said, "I was informed that the health department officials of L ward only have the power to seize the tea stall's utensils and other stuff. It clearly shows that the concrete structures on the premises came up in connivance with the local ward officials and the police or else it is not possible to carry out such illegal businesses in an area which has already been sealed by the cops."

"Moreover, even after an official complaint was made both to the police commissioner and civic commissioner well in advance, it was surprising to read the quotes of both the L ward assistant municipal commissioner and local cops who said that they were unaware of the developments. This clearly exposes the communication gap between the departments concerned," added Almeida.

Even though the local cops had sealed the hotel premises after the fire, both the shops had started operating in the area in the past two weeks

Jacqueline D'souza, mother of Erwin D'souza, who had died in the blaze, said, "We are happy that some action has been taken by the local ward office, but we expected them to be more proactive and remove the paan shop as well. We will inform the Bombay HC about the illegal structures that have come on the premises as the area might have crucial evidence for the ongoing criminal case at the Kurla magistrate court."

"The local ward office and the police need to take proactive measures and ensure that the hotel premises is freed from all encroachments, or else we will be compelled to stage a protest," she added.

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