Thane: The death toll in the three-storeyed Bhiwandi building collapse rose to eight on Monday. Two more bodies were extricated from the debris by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) nearly 48 hours after the tragedy struck. The work on clearing the debris continued for the third day and was called off at around 10am on Monday.
The two victims extricated late Sunday night were Dinesh Tiwari, 34, and Ashok Mishra, 32. Sources said the two were working for MRK foods located on the ground and first floors of the building.
The other six deceased are Navnath Sawant, 40, Laxmidevi Ravi Mohoto, 26, Sona Mukesh Kori, 4, Sudhakar Gawai, 34, Praveen Pramod Chaudhari, 22, and Triveni Yadav, 40.
The structure housed several godowns on the ground and first floors and at least four families resided on the two upper floors.
NDRF commander (Pune) Deepak Pandey said they continued the relief and rescue operations until all the missing persons were accounted for. He said over a dozen people have been rescued in the first major pre-monsoon building disaster in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region area.
Bhiwandi tehsildar Adhik Patil said that the building was illegally constructed and prima facie did not have any permission from MMRDA. A senior MMRDA official on condition of anonymity said that they never received any application for regularisation from the owner. In December 2013, MMRDA had written to the Thane collector about the responsibility that the local authorities need to shoulder with regards to actions against dilapidated structures.
Building owner under legal scanner
The ill-fated building's owner, Indrapal Patil, was arrested on Sunday and booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, officials said.
Survivor thanks NDRF and the TDRF
On Sunday, a 38-year-old man, identified as Sunil Pisal, was rescued from the debris and admitted to a hospital in Bhiwandi. The man thanked the NDRF and the TDRF for giving him a new lease of life on the occasion of his birthday on Sunday.
The building was about 10 years old and possibly could not take the load of a mobile tower recently installed on top of it, according to a civic official.
Maha CM extends assistance and announces compensation
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the collapse site as well as the injured persons undergoing treatment in a hospital late Saturday night and termed the incident as "most unfortunate".
He instructed Thane Collector Ashok Shingare and other authorities to immediately carry out a survey of the structures declared 'most dangerous' in the district and shift people living in them to safer places before the onset of monsoon.
Shinde said cluster development, where several buildings on a large area are developed to give people a monetary advantage of scale, was the only solution to the problems arising on account of the dangerous buildings.
The Maharashtra government has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, while medical expenses of the injured would be borne by the state government.
