In the shoddy lanes of Eidgah road in Janata colony, Delhi, building norms might be the last thing that comes to ones mind. Bricks on bricks, latched on to a single pillar making it a nearly impossible to survive, as happened on Saturday morning when a four-storey building collapsed, taking lives of at least three people, including a one-year-old baby.
Locals have flagged reluctancy among the landlords and Municipal Corporation of Delhi for past several years. They said that the issues were notified several times, yet there were no proper actions taken to fix it.
Casualties In Collapse
As per latest reports, Matloob (50) and his wife Rabia (46) died in the incident. Their sons Parvez (32) and Naved (19) as well as Parvez's wife Siza (21) and 1-year-old son Ahmad were injured and sent to a hospital for treatment.
Govind (60) and his brother Ravi Kashyap (27) and their wives Deepa (56) and Jyoti (27), who lived in the opposite building, were also hospitalised for their injuries.
Matloob and Rabia's daughter Afiya who moved to Jaipur after marriage said that she has not been allowed to meet with the victims yet. She reached Delhi in the afternoon after getting to know about the incident.
Traumatic Morning For The Residents Of Janata Colony
According to the locals, one of the injured had come to live inside this building after her home was damaged in fire.
Further speaking to more residents in the lane, it has been understood that the main building that collapsed shared the wall with their immediate neighbours and those have also damaged and injured the residents inside.
Some of these neighbours including Ravi Kashyap who was also injured this morning from bricks and debris, said, "We left home early morning before the police or the rescue team reached so we have not been counted in the preliminary injured list."
Another such neighbour is Sona Devi whose niece was also injured and is being treated right now.
"Woke up to a loud boom today morning and all we could see outside was dust blowing up", recalled Asma who is a neighbour of the victims in the building collapse in Delhi's Janata colony.
She further says, "all of our houses are in terrible condition and I would say we are lucky that the collapse didn't take our houses down with it."
The location of collapse is a lane not wider than six feet.
Ravi also said that few bricks and debris even entered into the room he was sleeping inside and injured his leg. Kashyap said, "I woke up to a bricks and dust gushing into my room and hitting me and my wife."
He said that his in-laws were trapped under an almirah that fell on them due to the imapct of the collapse and his mother-in-law is still under treatment. He himself was also injured in the leg and got treated there.
When asked if he is thinking about relocation, Kashyap said, "this house is all I have, leaving this will make me homeless, we cannot afford anything else."
Rescue Operation Underway
As the rescue operation continues, the Shahadara SDM told Outlook that around 100 people are involved in the procedure including NDRF, CRPF, police and fire department personnel and locals who stepped in to help.
A neighbour of the collapsed building, Rashid Khan said that so far at least three people have died including a one-year-old child.
The locals involved in the rescue operation with the fire service personnel, mentioned that they are currently trying to rescue a two and half year old child trapped under the debris.
An electricity pole also broke down during the collapse which the emergency personnel have been able to repair temporarily.
One of the NDRF personnel said that the entire rescue procedure with take hours and might even continue till tomorrow morning because the lanes are so narrow that only one cart can enter at once to carry the debris out.
As per the officials there are four people still trapped inside.
Locals Flag Issues Of Reluctant Landlords, MCD
Yasmin Malik, a local resident said that most of the houses in the area have not been built following regulations and even after requesting the landlords to repair the issues for the past five months they did not pay any heed. She said, "Yeh toh hona hi tha"(this was inevitable).
Another local Abdul Saddam told Outlook, "there is only permission to build 42 feet houses but no one follows the norms and you will see most of the houses are four to six floors high". He further said that as and when the landlords are asked to look into the issues, they only make 'temporary fixes'.
Elderly local Abdul Hafiz who has been living here for the past 46 years said that recently ahead of elections the MCD added rubber pipes for sewage and somehow finished the work that might have led to further weakening of the structures in the locality.
Hafiz said, "We complained to the MCD for looking into this problem but they did not even come to inspect".
While some have stated that this could have happened due to the two earthquakes that took place in Delhi recently. However, locals refuted the claim stating "there have been several earthquakes in the past but the buildings stood strong."
