8 killed, 3 hurt as building collapses in Bhiwandi

THANE: In a repeat of last Sunday’s tragedy, another illegal building in Bhiwandi served a demolition notice came crashing down this Sunday, killing eight people and injuring three.

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While the civic authorities and the police were busy pointing fingers at each other for letting people stay on in the unsafe and illegal three-storeyed construction in the Navin Taneri area, the Gupta family that owned it lost six members including the patriarch Sajjanlal Gupta, 60, and his wife Satyawanti, 55. They had refused to move out even after a structural audit showed the 35-year-old building was unsafe.

The building, called Mahadev, collapsed around 6.30am and five people were pulled out of the wreckage soon after the fire brigade and the NDRF arrived. Two of them died in hospital while the other three are being treated. Six bodies were recovered nearly 10 hours later.

Last Sunday, the Kabir Sheikh building in Bhiwandi, also slated for demolition, had collapsed in the rain killing eight people. Bhiwandi has more than 200 buildings that are occupied though they are on the verge of collapse. The residents say they have nowhere else to go and ignore the authorities warnings.

Ram Kesarwani, an eyewitness said one side of the L-shaped Mahadev building collapsed and that 22 people in the other wing had to be rescued by the fire brigade using ladders as the stairs had crumbled too.

The Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation said it had served notice to the building several times since April 20. Sunil Bhalerao, assistant municipal commissioner of the BNMC, said, “In May, the residents claimed that the building was in good condition and asked us to conduct a structural audit before demolishing it. We even carried out the audit and on May 30 gave them the report that said the building was unsafe. However they refused to vacate. We served another notice on June 15 and asked the power company to disconnect the power supply on June 22.”

Though power supply was not snapped, the BNMC had cut off water supply.

An official from the BNMC said, “The demolition work is stalled in most parts of the city as we do not get police protection at times. The Kabir Shaikh building was stalled for the same reason.”

The police, however, denied this. Dinesh Kakte senior inspector, said, “We can arrange for police protection within four hours. However they [the civic authorities] are delaying the process. They can even cut off power connection; but they did not do so with the Mahadev building.”