'Freak mishap' jolts BMC out of slumber

Contractor repairs footpath in a few hours after shop owner files police complaint against the civic body for a loose stone from the site that came hurtling in and missed him by a whisker

Niren Shah, a pharmaceutical dealer at Kalachowki, had just opened his shop last morning when a stone missile suddenly smashed through the windowpane, missing him by a whisker and strewing shards of glass everywhere.
A loose stone from a nearby footpath, which had been dug up by the BEST last week, had been hurled towards Shah when a bus crossed the stretch.


One of the paving stones laid on the road turned into a stone
missile and broke Niren Shah's shop window



"I was totally numb for a few seconds. The stone missed me by a whisker and landed near my laptop," said Niren.

Niren lodged a complaint with the Kalachowki police and BMC and police officials came to the spot to investigate the incident.

Shailesh Shah, the contractor in charge of repairing the footpath, said, "The BEST had dug up the footpath about six days ago.
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They finished their work only on Sunday. We were supposed to carry out the repairs on Monday night, but the police did not allow us to do so. The incident happened just when we were about to commence work. "

The contractor, however, hurriedly got into the act after the incident and the footpath was repaired by 3 pm.

Nitin Jadhav, an official from the BMC's maintenance department, said, "The footpath stones belong to us and so the concerned party is dragging the civic body into the controversy.

This is a freak accident, so no one can be held responsible for it." Inspector Srinivas Deshmukh from Kalachowki police station said, "Niren Shah has filed a non-cognisable complaint against the BMC.

We are investigating the matter."