4 hurt as windowpane shatters at BMC headquarters

Four people, including the civic body’s works committee chairman Priti Patankar, suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after a windowpane shattered in the committee

Four people, including the civic body’s works committee chairman Priti Patankar, suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after a windowpane shattered in the committee hall at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters, during a meeting. Mayor Kishori Pednekar has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

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Around 2.30pm on Wednesday, while corporators were busy in a meeting of the works committee (city) in the hall, the glass panes of a large window above Patankar’s chair broke, with the shattered glass pieces falling on those sitting below it. Along with Patankar, Latif Kazi, the deputy municipal secretary; Kalpana Athalekar, a senior BMC official; and Suprabha Marathe, deputy chief engineer of civil environment department, sustained injuries to their heads, backs and legs. They were given medical aid.

According to officials, the glass window pane could have shattered owing to the impact of renovation work going on inside the BMC headquarters. “We have already appointed a contractor to renovate the interiors of the building. As per the initial inquiry, the window pane broke because of this maintenance work,” said Pednekar. The mayor has ordered a thorough inquiry into the matter and directed officials to take precautions during maintenance work to prevent such incidents. AL Jarhad, additional municipal commissioner, who is in charge of the building and maintenance department, BMC, said, “This is an unfortunate incident. I will take complete information from the department concerned about what happened and if there was any negligence. Appropriate action will be initiated, if needed.”

The other injured civic officials refused to comment on the incident.