Residents of Mumbra, a suburb of Mumbai, stage a blockade on Wednesday against the failure to resume suburban railway traffic. (PTI)

Mumbai, Aug. 3: Public fury erupted across platforms in the city against the state government for its inaction during the killer rains.

A city NGO, led by public personalities from various fields, especially the film world, filed a public interest litigation against the government’s failure. At a talk, urban planners debated the city’s future.

Jaag India, a platform that brought together ad man Alyque Padamsee, lawyer Majeed Memon, who represents the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case and other blast cases, and film directors Mahesh Bhatt, Ashok Pandit and Vinta Nanda, filed the PIL in the high court today, demanding that the government come up with answers to the people.

“The PIL should be mentioned in a day or two. We have urged the court to take it up on a priority basis given the circumstances,” said Memon at a news conference.

The PIL, which lists the Maharashtra government, MTNL, Western Railway, Central Railway, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the police commissioner and the meteorological department as respondents, asks all these public institutions to account through detailed reports the steps taken by them to prevent the disaster.

About 1,000 people were killed across the state ? almost 450 in Mumbai ? during the rains that began last Tuesday.

The PIL asked the state and the Met department to say what equipment was used to forecast the weather as there were no warnings of the deluge, and to upgrade the machinery to international standards.

It demanded that the government furnish the names of all the victims and set up a mechanism with members from the civil society to see that relatives receive the compensation.

It also asked the government to furnish details on the losses caused by the flooding.

The PIL demanded that the government should implement the guidelines of the Union home ministry status report of 2004 on disaster management and set up effective machinery for that purpose. It said the government should also revamp the drainage system.

The petition also asks the state to furnish details on the losses caused by the flooding.

“We are trying to collect a million signatures and reach the Prime Minister,” said Padamsee.