1 killed, 2 injured as portion of unauthorised building collapses in north Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar

According to a statement issued by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the construction was declared illegal and set to be demolished on October 3.

A labourer was killed and two others injured when a portion of an unauthorised under-construction building collapsed in north Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar on Monday afternoon, police said.

A Delhi Fire Service (DFS) personnel during a rescue operation after a portion of an unauthorised under-construction building collapsed in Swaroop Nagar, in New Delhi, on Monday, October 1, 2018. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

According to a statement issued by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the construction was declared illegal and set to be demolished on October 3.

The Delhi Police, which too had alerted the corporation about the construction in July, has booked the owner of the building for causing death due to negligence. “The accused owner, Satish Yadav, who was constructing a two-storey godown that he intended to lease out, is absconding,” Aslam Khan, deputy commissioner of police, (north-west), said, adding that nearly 70 square yards of the building collapsed at 1.10pm.

The godown was being constructed on a 500 square yard plot near Azad Palace in Swaroop Nagar. According to a labourer, who did not want to be identified, around two dozen men were working at the site at the time of the collapse.

“We were casting the slab when suddenly one end of the structure collapsed. We thought it was an earthquake and ran out to save our lives,” the labourer said, adding that he was unaware that the structure was to be demolished in two days.

While one labourer, identified as Pankaj, was working right under the collapsed structure, two others were perched atop the two-storey building. “Pankaj was buried under a large pile of wet cement and iron frames. It took us 20 minutes to dig him out. He was breathing when we rescued him, but he seemed badly injured,” said Rajesh Kumar, assistant divisional officer (Delhi Fire Services).

Pankaj, believed to be in his late 20s, was rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Police said no one known to him has arrived to collect his body yet.

Prakash, a local resident and eyewitness, said two other labourers, who were perched atop the structure, too, were injured by the iron frames that collapsed. “But they escaped death because they were not buried under the rubble,” said Prakash. Police said the two injured men are out of danger.

The fire officers continued their search operation for the next three hours before confirming that no one else was trapped underneath the debris.

The corporation said they had booked the property for unauthorised construction under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act on June 18 and had also passed the demolition order.

In other letters dated July 9, the civic agency had asked the water, electricity and revenue department not to provide water or power connections or register the property, the statement said.

The station house officer (SHO) had, on July 14, written to the corporation’s deputy commissioner to “take immediate necessary steps to restrain the owner/contractor not to carry out further construction and had promised “necessary police assistance” to carry out demolition of the structure.