Citizens' panel to begin hearing on floods today

The Concerned Citizens' Commission (CCC) has set up a panel to enquire into the causes of the floods that halted the city on July 26.

The panel, headed by the retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice PB Sawant, will hold a series of public hearings starting on Saturday, which will continue for three weeks.

The hearings will start at Kurla and move on to Kalina, Jeri-Mari, Dharavi, Sion, Sakinaka, Chembur, Kandivali, Malad, Bandra and South Mumbai. The objective is to identify the immediate and long-term factors behind worsening the situation in the city. The report will be submitted to the state government by October 31.

"It is basically a fact-finding panel that will visit the worst affected areas in the city and suburbs. We expect to get a first-hand account of what happened on July 26 and after," said Cyrus Guzder, a member of the commission. The findings could help in doing better planning of the city to avert any future disasters.

"Our attempt is to identify the causes of the floods by interacting with the public and the administration. Our aim is to find out how many people actually died in the floods. No information regarding what happened on July 26 and ten days after that was available. We will try to unearth this too," said Debi Goenka, another commission member and environmentalist.

The panel will also hear experts in the field of urban planning, disaster management and environment protection.

It is expected to document recommendations of the public, state government and the different authorities concerned to initiate follow up and remedial action besides laying down basic guidelines for the safe and healthy development of the city.