The Maharashtra government has informed the Bombay High Court Monday that it has issued a government resolution (GR) to set up a four-member committee. Led by former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Pravin Pardeshi, the committee will prepare a report with recommendations for implementation of draft regulations for fire safety in buildings vulnerable to man-made disasters.
The regulations were formulated in 2009 in the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attack, which took place in November 2008. The court directed the panel to submit its report with recommendations in two months.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Abha Singh, seeking directions to the state government for the issuance of the final notification on ‘Special Regulations for Building Vulnerable to Manmade Disasters’.
Earlier, the state government had told the bench that a special committee needed to be set up before the draft rules can be included in the 2034 Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) as the government was in the process of including safety draft rules in the new DCPR.
On July 29, additional government pleader Hiten Venegaonkar informed the bench that a proposal was mooted for constituting a committee under Pardeshi consisting of three other members, Sandip Isore, representive of practising engineers, Architect and Town Planners Association, N R Shende, retired director of town planning, and the chief engineer (development planning), BMC, who is also to be the coordinator.
