2nd house collapse in four days kills two

Barely two days after nine people died in a building collapse in Brahmpuri, another under-construction building comes down, reports Neelam Pandey.

Barely two days after nine people died in a building collapse in Brahmpuri in northeast Delhi on March 29, another under-construction building, this time in northwest Delhi, came down on Tuesday. Two persons were killed and nine injured.

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Labourer Vinod, 20, and 35-year-old electrician Pintu died while being taken out of the debris. Mankor, an expectant mother working at the site, also sustained serious injuries.

Four labourers were suspected to be still under the debris as rescue operations slowed down due to onlookers congesting the approach to the accident site, fire officials said. This forced fire and police officers to carry out rescue operations manually.

The injured were rushed to Rohini’s BR Ambedkar hospital. The incident took place around 3 pm on Tuesday when the wall of the under-construction third floor collapsed.

Fire officials said the second floor was not strong enough to sustain the weight of another floor as the owner had removed its pillars.

Officials say owner Mukesh Garg was illegally constructing the floor over the two-storey Janta flats in block F-7, Sector 16.

Police have registered a case of negligence against Garg. An assistant engineer and two other MCD employees have been suspended for dereliction of duty.