General Entry of a Reporter

Journal entry of a reporter

Massive fire at Mumbai slum during demolition drive

When I presented this news to the chief editor of my newspaper on the same day the incident took palce. Firstly they where not happy to put this news in the paper as there argument behind this was that the evidence which was collected was the evidence that was based on the information which the local people and the officials present at the spot of the incident had given to me. The statistical data which was given by the officials was also not appropriate because there was many other informtion that was coming forth and there was a difference in the statistical data after every half and hour. There was also difference in the information collected by me about the fire, as there were also other reporters along with me who were also collecting the information. There was time when I had to ask the reportes of the other newspaper for the information or the latesed updates as I had missed on some part of information while interviewing the other localites. As being a lady reported it was sometimes very difficult for me to gather some information because I was not allowed to enter in many place as there was restrictions put by the officials for the safety of the crowd. Also the crowd which had gathered outside the Behrampada slums was not decent. One more problem which I faced during the time of collection of the news or talking to the local residence of the slum was that everyone spoke in marathi which became a little difficult for me to understand there were time when I had to ask the people present there ,the police official to talk in hindi if they knew how to. There were some people to whom I spoke they spoke to me in there improper english but it help me understand what they were speaking of.

When the chief editor refused to put up the news collected by me on the Behrampada slums fire there were members in the office who were in support of me and were trying to convince them to put this news up in the newspaper. The main argument that was put forth by me and the other members of the ofiice was that if we put up the information now, and if there is any mistake in the statistical data that has been collecetd no one will question the newspaper becauese till now there has been no proper data of how mamy people have being injured and killed in the fire it is chaging constantly and we can keep a note of it after the news has being publised and the later information will be put in tommrows newspaper with lated updates of time and othe statistical data.

Secondly, they also argued that the news has already been shown in the social media and people are aware of it as of now we will put it up in next days newspaper when all the information collected is proven to be correct. They also said that the news will not be put in the first page and will be put somewhere in fifth or sixth page. This was very disturbing for me because they had personaly asked me to go and report this news life but after when I have got the information they refuse to put it up in the newspaper of that day itself when the news is collected and they also told me that it will be put in the later pages. After this I was very disappointated with the fact that the news which I had collected with so much effort and which was the latest news which came directly from the people involved in it should have been put as a front page news but the news landed up in fifth and sixth page of the newspaper.

Finally, on the next day when all the updates were made to the news of Behrampada slums fire the news was put up in the newspaper.

Summary of the news

On 24th of October a huge incident occurred in the Behrampada slums of Mumbai in Bandra near the railway station which has also affected the central railway harbour local train services from CSMT. This incident took place around 3:00pm and within a minute the fire spread over a huge area, from a level two fire it went up to level four fire which made very difficut for the fire brigadeand the other people to put it off.

During this process when the two firemen Mangesh Tirki and Rahul Thakre were batelling with the blaze, they got severly injured and were rused to the the Holy Family Hospital. 51 localites staying there also sustained injuries along with Rajesh lokhande.

The incident took place when the civic official were trying to dimolish some illegal structure in the slum. As told by the official from the disaster