Mumbai building collapse: 7 BMC officers suspended, enquiry against 18

Seven officers have been suspended (see box). More heads will roll as the civic chief Sitaram Kunte, along with additional municipal commissioners Rajeev Jalota and Mohan Adtani, have proposed to conduct an enquiry against eighteen of their officers, including the suspended seven.

Out of these, eight officers belong to the Planning and Design department, a department responsible for repairs of BMC properties, and 10 officers of Markets department, under whose jurisdiction the Babu Genu Market department was.

Rajeev Jalota, assistant municipal commissioner, said, "We will be suspending 7 officers, and enquiry will be initiated against 18 officers. This is our first step, and further administrative enquiry will be conducted by me and Mohan Adtani." Some top bureaucrats might be shown the door, with the possibility of suspension of the head of the Markets department Chandrashekhar Chore, assistant commissioner, Markets. More decisions will be taken after detailed enquiries.

A technical advisory committee has also been instituted under Laxman Vhatkar, director of engineering services and projects, with structural consultant Shashank Mehandale, Bharat Patil, deputy chief engineer of planning and design (western suburbs) Bharat Patil, and Sunil Rathod, executive engineer (building proposals) Sunil Rathod, as its other members. The committee will have to submit a report on the building collapse in a month.

The suspended 7
MN Patel, Executive Engineer, Planning and Design; MK Redekar, Assistant Engineer, Planning and Design; SN Yele, Assistant Engineer, Planning and Design; SN Ghadage, Assistant Engineer, Markets; Rahul Jadhav, Assistant Engineer, Markets; Dr BC Chavan, Deputy Superintendent, Markets; Jamal Kazi, Inspector, Marketsu00a0