'I realised something was wrong and jumped off the building'

Activists had been writing to BMC about the rampant illegal structures in Goregaon's Motilal Nagar area, but officials allegedly paid no heed

The collapse of a two-storey under-construction structure on Sunday morning killed at least three people in Goregaon's Motilal Nagar area. Six people were also injured in the incident. Local activists had been filing repeated complaints about illegal construction in the area, but BMC allegedly didn't pay any attention to them.

The incident occurred around 9.15 am at the two-storey structure which was part of a MHADA chawl. According to the fire department, "A slab of the ground plus two structure collapsed. According to the public, around three to four workers were trapped under the slab." Seven people were removed from the debris by locals before the fire brigade arrived, and sent to Siddharth hospital. Later, three people were rescued by firemen and sent to the hospital.

Ramankumar Mandal, 27, was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, while Subhash Chavan, 38, and Rajendra Mishad, 40, succumbed to injuries at the hospital. Mandal, who hails from Rajasthan, had come to Mumbai only a few days ago to earn a livelihood. But, he lost his life in the collapse. His waist was crushed when he got buried under the debris, killing him on the spot. Abhimanyu, one of his relatives, said, "He was the breadwinner. He would travel to Hyderabad and Mumbai for work, staying away from his family for six to eight months. Once he had enough money, he would return."

Shinnu Vadar, 38, who hails from Karanataka and came to Mumbai only a month ago was working at the site when the structure collapsed. He was able to save his life by jumping into an open space. "When I heard the shouting and felt the trembling, I realised something was wrong and jumped off the building. I saw the building collapse in front of me," he said. Vadar has suffered injuries to his head, hands and legs and is undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Siddharth hospital's medical officer Dr Nand Kumar Wade said, "Eleven people were brought to the hospital, of whom three have died. Five of the injured were discharged from the hospital, while three are still undergoing treatment. Two of these are at Siddharth Hospital, while others were sent to Cooper Hospital. Most of them suffered injuries to their hands, legs and heads but all of them are out of all danger."

Could have been averted
This tragedy could have been averted had the BMC listened to the complaints of the local activists. One of them is Ajay Y Khan, who has filed several plaints with BMC on the rise of illegal buildings in the area, but the corporation never paid any heed. He filed the latest complaint on August 3 (mid-day has a copy). He said, "I have been fighting for months against the growing illegal construction in the area but BMC keeps sitting on it. Today, three innocent lives were lost because of the corporation's fault." mid-day reached out to ward officer Chanda Jadhav, but she was unavailable for comment.

2,704 collapses already
The response to an RTI filed by local activist Shakeel Shaikh revealed that between 2013 to 2018, as many as 2,704 buildings have collapsed in Mumbai, killing over 200 and injuring around 800. Till July this year, seven people were killed in 359 building collapses, which injured 100.

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