Holding the nexus of a ‘small percentage of corrupt officials’ with ‘professional complainants’ responsible for flourishing of illegal eateries in the city, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta said he would take steps to rout the menace.
“There is a very small percentage of corrupt officials. There are professional complainants, who together are trying to ensure that the permissions are given in a particular way or are subverted,” Mehta told PTI in an interview.
“We are now looking into this issue. We will break the back of this officials-activists nexus,” Mehta said, speaking in the aftermath of the Kamala Mills compound pub fire that claimed 14 lives last week.
“We will keep taking action till we break their backs,” the senior IAS officer said, referring to the slew of demolitions of illegal constructions and alterations at over 350 establishments in the city as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) continued to raze these structures at hotels and restaurants, after the blaze.
“Just like in the nallah and road repair scam, where we found out who is the corrupt contractor, and who is the corrupt engineer and broke their backs, we will do the same here,” Mehta said.
“In the long term, we are looking at breaking the fire brigade into two parts, wherein the fire fighting wing is separate and the fire permissions and compliance wing is separate,” he said.