When fire broke out at hospitals and eateries, they took action. When bridges fell and dilapidated buildings caved in, they proposed a structural audit. All said and done but without much prevention in advance. Deaths in such incidents haven’t affected the lives of political and private individuals and impacted the careers of government officials, who should have been held responsible for the plight of the innocent. In most cases, those who we thought were the real culprits have gone unpunished whereas the families of the dead and critically injured suffer most for the rest of their lives. Ghatkopar’s billboard incident is unlikely to be any different from the past, as far as fixing responsibility goes.

In the advertising business, land lease comes at a very high cost in Mumbai. The private and government landowners lease their land for billboards. Rules and regulations for installing commercial hoardings/billboards go for a toss when the operators compromise on the quality of construction and maintenance. The civic body recovers taxes from such installations, but we are not sure whether they check them for quality and strength. We’re told that the Ghatkopar billboard violated the civic norms for maximum size (40x40 ft). It was a 120x120 ft structure.