In today's State Assembly session, Eknath Shinde, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, announced that a compensation of Rs 50,000 would be given to the families who lost their houses in the recent fire incident in the Appapada slums located in Malad, Mumbai.
According to reports, a fire erupted on March 13 in the Anand Nagar slum situated in Appa pada, Malad East, damaging around 1,000 houses and causing the death of one person. The rescue operation carried on till late at night, but firefighters encountered challenges in reaching the forest area where the blaze originated due to the narrow lanes.
The day after the fire outbreak the issue was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly, and the state government promised financial support from the Chief Minister's relief fund for the affected slum dwellers. Representatives from all political parties demanded that the aid process be accelerated since the fire had caused the victims to lose everything.
Local MLA Sunil Prabhu had raised the matter saying almost 2,000 huts in the slum cluster had been gutted in the blaze. According to Prabhu, some residents of the cluster don't even have a change of clothes. "Everything has gone to ashes. More than 10,000 have been affected by the incident. We request the government to provide immediate relief," he had said.