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Alleging 'total failure' of the disaster management system, a group of television and Bollywood personalities filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court on Wednesday, seeking a direction to the centre and the Maharashtra government to list steps taken to provide relief to victims of the recent deluge in the state and to tackle such calamities in future.
The PIL was filed by Project Smita, a non governmental organisation established in the memory of late actress Smita Patil, film maker Mahesh Bhatt, producer-director Ashok Pandit, theatre personality Aleque Padamsee and other film personalities including Raman Kumar, Vinta Nanda, Soni Razdan and Anu Ranjan.
Terrible Tuesday: Mumbai copes with a calamity
The PIL, filed through lawyers Majeed Memon and Mihir Desai, would come up for hearing in due course.
Other respondents in the PIL include Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, commissioner of police, railway authorities and the Indian Meteorological department.
The PIL prayed for a direction to the respondents to disclose steps taken by them to rehabilitate flood victims and urged for upgrading the equipment used by the meteorological department at Mumbai for weather forecast.
The group sought that the respondents be directed to file a detailed report to the court on the causes of the deluge, losses caused by it and steps to be taken to cope with such calamities in the future.
The PIL also sought for a direction to the respondents to furnish a list of persons who died as a result of the floods and to put in place a mechanism to ensure that their kith and kin received compensation.