Continued from page u0010 u000f 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 u0081 u008d u008f u0090 , said, u201c 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.u201d u201c 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,u201d added Pimenta.
He also pointed out that the paan shop is operating within u008f u008d u008d metres of Holy Cross High school, which according to a Bombay HC ruling was illegal.
u201c 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,u201d he said.
Almeida said, u201c I was informed that the health department officials of L ward only have the power to seize the tea stallu2019s 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.u201d u201c 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,u201d added Almeida.
. acqueline Du2019souza, mother of Erwin Du2019souza, who had died in the blaze, said, u201c 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.u201d u201c 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,u201d she added.
Illegal tea stall in City Kinara hotel gets the boot The illegal tea stall at hotel City Kinara; ( right) 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 mid- dayu2019s report on January 31 MID- DAY u001f IMPACT u2018 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 demolishedu2019 Godfrey Pimenta, advocate u001f u001e u001d u001c Year eight people had died in a blaze at the hotel
