Pune: NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Friday demanded criminal action against civic officials and contractors allegedly responsible for the July 8 Moshi waste-to-energy depot tragedy and sought Rs 1 crore compensation for each victim’s family.He said that suspension of officials concerned was not enough and warned of a protest if the demands were not addressed within two weeks.The Karjat-Jamkhed MLA made the demands after visiting Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and meeting families of the nine people, who were killed when a garbage mound collapsed on a building at the waste depot last month.Pawar disputed the civic administration’s description of the incident as a ‘natural calamity’. He said rainfall alone could not have caused the collapse and alleged that lapses by civic officials, contractors and environment department officials, along with violations of prescribed norms, contributed to the tragedy.He also questioned the safety of the waste-to-energy plant, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated in 2023. “The plant’s chimney collapsed within two months of its inauguration. This raises questions over whether adequate safety audits were conducted before the inauguration,” he said.Rohit Pawar demanded an inquiry into the educational qualification of Yogesh Alhat, a suspended executive engineer of PCMC. How could he have completed a regular degree course while being employed by the civic body?, Pawar questioned.He said authorities should ascertain whether the degree was genuine and the civic body had been misled.
