Nine containers from the vessel MSC Chitra washed ashore at Uran yesterday, and villagers wasted no time in rummaging through them. They broke the containers and started taking the tea powder and biscuits from them, little realising that they could be contaminated.
The entire shoreline of Uran was flooded with open tea bags, medicines and biscuit packets swimming in oil. While some containers broke when the high tide lashed the containers against the rocks, others were broken by the villagers looking for some bounty.
On Tuesday, when MiDDAY visited the Uran beach, some policemen were spotted stopping people from venturing on to the beach. However many children and women were seen scaling the compound walls of neighbouring houses and heading towards the abandoned containers. When told that they could be harmful, one young boy retorted, "Sab le gaye, aap hum ko kyon bol rahe ho?"
Sushant Bhosale (17), a Std XI student from Anand Nagar, was spotted returning home with a bag full of tea powder. He said, "I found the tea powder in one of the containers. My father runs a store in the village, I will give it to him, we will sell the tea powder." Kalpesh Mhatre (27) of Navgaon village, was happy that he would not have to spend money on buying tea powder for the next one year. "I have collected sufficient tea powder."
Sunil Purav, the local Sena leader from the village blamed the local administration and police for not taking adequate preventive measures. "The containers have been floating in the sea since Saturday. I called the local police, but they did not revert. The police deployed a bandobast only on Tuesday. By then most of the food items were stolen," he said.
Policemen from Uran police station deployed on duty said they were asked to stop the villagers from venturing into the beach, but when asked why no action was being taken against those stealing, they had no answer.
"We have been instructed by our superiors to ensure that the crowd does not venture into the beach. Villagers from neighbouring areas have also started gathering at the beach and our job is to stop them," said police constable R Shinde.
Numerous attempts to contact Raigad collector Subhash Sonawane did not yield any result.
It is estimated that 350 containers fell into the sea, according to the director general of shipping
MSC Chitra had 1,219 containers on board, of which 31 held hazardous chemicals and pesticides
The Mumbai harbour is expected to be cleared for normal traffic by August 15, according to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
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