Thane: Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Manikrao Thakre, who visited the site of the building collapse at Mumbra on Saturday, said the responsibility to keep track of illegal structures lies with the local authorities.
"It is the responsibility of the concerned departments and officials at the local level to check illegal constructions", Thakre told reporters after visiting the site of the building collapse at Lucky Compound near Shil Phata.
Thane Municipal Corporation is controlled by Shiv Sena.
The death toll in the tragedy has mounted to 72 since the under-construction seven-storey illegal building, located at Lucky Compound in Shil Phata area, came down crashing on Thursday evening.
"All of us know that a large number of buildings are built without required permissions", Thakre said.
His comments came against the backdrop of Thane Municipal Commissioner R A Rajeev going on record yesterday to say that 90 per cent of buildings in Mumbra area where Shil Phata, the scene of Thursday`s tragedy is located, are illegal.
The state government has so far suspended a senior police inspector of the Shil-Daighar police station and the deputy municipal commissioner of zone 1 of TMC in connection with the collapse.
On demand by Opposition to take action against the civic chief and other high-ranking officials, Thakre said, "Let us not target anyone. The government has already announced an inquiry. Let us wait for the findings of the investigation".
Responding to a query on whether the illegal structures in Mumbra could be regularised, Thakre said, "Let us not discuss the issue of regularisation at this point of time but to devise effective solution to prevent such tragedies from recurring in future".
PTI
