Kolkata Building Collapse: Death Toll Hits 10 Amid Rain Delay, Arrests Made In Illegal Construction Case

The death toll in building collapse incident in Kolkata rises to 10. The NDRF team that faced problems in evacuation work due to heavy rainfall on Wednesday tried with modern equipment to clean the debris.

"The sniffer dogs indicated that someone might still get stuck under the debris so we are trying to clean the area but due to the heavy rainfall the work is getting delayed as the modern machine operates through a generator," said an officer.

Owner arrested

Meanwhile, after the promoter Mohammad Wasim, Kolkata Police on Wednesday had arrested one Sarafraz Malik aka Pappu, the owner of the land on which the illegal building was being made, that collapsed.

After filing an RTI, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said, "In the aftermath of the Garden Reach tragedy, the unpreparedness of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been totally exposed. As a responsible Leader of the Opposition, I have initiated the process of data compilation regarding the process of sanctioning building plans, rejection of the same, issuing of completion certificates, identification and demolition of illegal buildings etc. This data would certainly help in assessing the risk posed by the illegal buildings which have been built without valid permission. For this purpose, I have filed an Application under the RTI Act."

It may be recalled that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim had earlier given ‘clean chit’ to the local councillor and mentioned that it is ‘not’ possible for the councillor to know which is being built 'illegally'. Following Hakim’s statement, Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh mentioned that those in chair cannot wash away their responsibility.