The museum is managed by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and Jamanalal Bajaj Foundation. However, since it is a BMC property, by default the mayor becomes head of its management. EXPRESS PHOTO BY MAHENDRA PARIKHA DAY after a city dentist succumbed to injuries from a lift accident at BMC-owned Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum last month, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Thursday ordered a probe into the incident by the deputy municipal commissioner of the general administration department.
“I have ordered the deputy municipal commissioner to submit a detailed probe report in the next one month,” Mehta told the The Indian Express.
Earlier, Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar and the corporators had demanded a probe into the incident and also the appointment of an expert panel to take care of the museum’s daily management.
The BMC and the museum administration have been at loggerheads since 2015, after the corporators accused the museum trust of mismanagement and gobbling up the adjoining playground to make a parking lot.
On May 10, Mahadeshawar had written to Mehta, asking him conduct a probe against the trust management and their alleged negligence in the accident.
He also asked the civic administration to take over the museum once the agreement between BMC and museum trust ends in October this year.
“There was an unfortunate incident in which a doctor and her daughter were seriously injured and later the doctor died in Masina Hospital. Being the mayor, I am the chairman of the management of the museum trust. The trust should have informed me about the accident but they kept quiet and did not tell me anything. Because of trust’s careless attitude and negligence, I faced criticism in the media. Following a proposal passed in 2016 in the civic house, BMC should take over the museum from the trust by October,” Mahadeshawar wrote.
“Taking note of negligence by the trust, the civic commissioner should initiate a probe against the incident and those guilty should be punished,” the letter added.
The museum is managed by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and Jamanalal Bajaj Foundation. However, since it is a BMC property, by default the mayor becomes head of its management.
On April 24, Dr Arnavaz Havewalla (63) and her daughter were seriously injured after a lift, which they were using to go from the first floor to the ground floor, crashed.
Both were admitted in Masina Hospital where Havewalla died on Thursday.
While police had initially registered a case against unknown persons under sections 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC, section 304 (A) (death due to negligence) was added to the charges on Friday following Havewalla’s death.
According to BMC officials, in 2003, it had entered in tripartite agreement with INTACH and Jamanalal Bajaj Foundation to manage the museum’s daily affairs. However, while the BMC has maintained that the agreement will end on October 2019, the trust has claimed as per its records, it is ending by 2023.
Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh, who was the first to raise this issue, had also written a letter (May 9) to the mayor, demanding appointment of three experts from the corporation on the trust’s management panel.
“In 2015, after it was found that museum trust was engaging in largescale mismanagement and commercial exploitation of the museum, all the corporators had decided to remove then management and set up a new panel with 17 members, including three experts from the BMC. However, after this notice of motion was passed, nothing happened. It was the mayor’s responsibility to set up a new panel. Now, in the light of this incident, the corporation should take immediate meeting and appoint new panel with experts,” he said.
When contacted, museum Director Tasneem Mehta said, “It was a freak accident. The lift was working fine for the last 11 years but there was some technical and mechanical fault that day. The women was in hospital for 10 days. We have written to the municipal commissioner and the additional municipal commissioner about the incident within a few days of the incident. We did everything that was required.”
