A BMC investigation into the Chembur tree collapse that killed an 11-year-old student has triggered a blame game between the civic road and garden departments. Both sides have submitted conflicting responses to the probe committee, with each denying negligence. The committee is examining whether road concretisation or internal tree decay caused the fatal collapse during heavy rains.

Mumbai: The BMC's investigation committee formed in the aftermath of the Chembur tragedy where a roadside trees collapsed on a school bus, on Thursday had issued notices to the heads of civic road department and garden department to present their side and concerned documents, giving them 24 hours time to respond.

Two-Member Committee Faces Tough Task of Fixing Accountability

The time period given by the committee ended on Friday evening and the concerned officers submitted their responses, in which the road's department has submitted the drawings showing the concerned engineers did their job properly, while the garden department stated that notices were issued to the road's department to take precautions while carrying out the road works, civic sources said.

This has potentially led to a blame game among the two departments and a challenging task for the probe committee to decide which department's negligence it was, leading to the tree collapse.