Mumbai: Residents of Lloyds Estate in Wadala are too scared to stay at home in the wake of the back-to-back boundary wall cave-ins on Monday and Tuesday. Those living in ‘C’ and ‘D’ wings have kept their emergency backpacks in readiness, just in case they have to leave at a moment’s notice.
Senior citizens and children have already been despatched to safer locations. To add to the D-wing residents’ misery, their gas supply has been cut off. D-wing resident Sheela Vyas said, “We hit the bed with a nagging fear whether we would be able to see the sun rise in the morning. Our emergency bags are ready. Since our gas supply has been cut for the last three days, we have been ordering food from restaurants.”
BMC on Wednesday issued a stop-work notice to builder Deepak Garodia of Dosti Realty Ltd. The notice calls on them to “not to carry out any work related to construction activity; instead, they should carry out restoration work to alleviate distress caused to adjoining buildings.” This notice was issued after rising public outrage and media attention and a day after Dosti Realty claimed that they were “not at fault” and that the incident was a “natural calamity”.
Residents however, are not buying this claim. “Rains have nothing to do with the collapse. Previous devastating calamities like July 26, 2005, and August 29, 2017, had never impacted the building,” they said. Viren Kumar Laur, another ‘D’ wing resident and an Oriental Bank employee, said the bonnet and driver’s seat of his car were damaged in Monday’s incident. “It was only because of the extensive excavation that the collapse took place. There should have been a protection wall. I was in Goa when I came to know about the incident. I was shocked. This work should simply stop and the builders should restore the basement. They (builders) should compensate us for the damage,” he said.
The collapse has also created a rift between the society’s residents and the committee, as the committee wants to keep the media out of this matter and “fight the issue the constitutional way”. Another resident, who didn’t wished to be named, opposed this action and said, “Going by BMC’s structural audit report, our secretary and chairman are of the opinion that the building is safe. They are trying to stay out of the media glare and the political attention that this issue is gaining.”
Congress Party activists and others protested outside the BMC F-North ward office on Wednesday, demanding a complete cessation of construction activity by Dosti Realty. Former Rajya Sabha MP Bhalchandra Mungekar, state Congress president Sanjay Nirupam, Leader of Opposition in BMC Ravi Raja, and other members of the Youth Congress participated in the protest.
Residents living in constant dread
