08-11-2019, por Hannah Ellis-Petersen
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/08/delhi-fire-india-factory-dozens-dead
Delhi fire: at least 43 dead in ‘horrific’ factory blaze
(..) Police said the building had violated multiple regulations and the owner had been arrested. Many of those who gathered near the site of the fire at Sadar Bazaar blamed the city council for poor oversight and regulation, as it is thought the factory was operating illegally. According to the head of the city’s fire services, Atul Garg, the building did not have fire clearance.
Sanjay Singh, a local MP, said it was the responsibility of municipal authorities to shut the factory down if it was operating illegally. “How did MCD [the council] allow the factory to run?” he asked.
Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper. Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant labourers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces. Lack of planning and lax enforcement of building and safety regulations often leads to such deadly accidents.
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Estima-se que 50 trabalhadores dormiam, no momento do incêndio,
nas instalações desse “suadouro” situado numa ruela do velho centro
comercial de Delhi.
É claro que faltam planejamento, regulação, fiscalização
e poder de polícia urbanística.
Mas as instituições do urbanismo não têm, por si sós, o condão de reverter a expansão da precariedade e da informalidade, habitacional e
trabalhista, gerada continuamente nas entranhas da economia monopolista
do século XXI - muito especialmente nos países médios e pobres da Ásia, África e
América Latina mas também, a essa altura, também nos países ricos, fulminados
pelo “efeito bumerangue” de sua própria potência imperialista.
2019-12-14
