Maha: Death toll in Bhiwandi building collapse rises to 17
The death toll in the Bhiwandibuilding collapse in Maharashtra rose to 17 on Tuesday, withrecovery of four more bodies during the night, police said.
The dead include eight children. The body of a girl,Afsana Ansari, 15, was found in the debris during the night,police said.
The number of those rescued from the debris has goneup to 23 with three more persons, including two women, havingbeen pulled out during the night, police said.
The 43-year-old Jilani building collapsed on Monday.
Two civic officials have been suspended in connectionwith the collapse and an offence has been registered againstthe building owner, an official said.
The building in the powerloom town – which is around10 km from Thane – had 40 flats and around 150 persons livedthere, an official said.
The building, located at Narpolis Patel Compound nearDhamankar Naka, collapsed while the residents were asleep.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)and personnel of the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) arestill at the spot as the search operation continues, he said.
The building was not in the list of dilapidatedstructures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation(BNMC), he said.
Bhiwandi DCP Rajkumar Shinde said offences undersections 337,338,304 (2)of the IPC were registered against theowner of building Sayyed Ahmed Jilani after a complaint bycivic officials. Jilani is yet to be arrested, he added.
The BNMC suspended two senior officials in connectionwith the building collapse. An inquiry committee has also beenset up and will include the assistant town planner, he said.
Meanwhile, a building resident said most residents ofthe building were tenants and included autorickshaw drivers,vendors and labourers.
A civic official said the building was served twonotices, one in 2019 and another in February, over allegedirregularities, but the residents did not leave as the rentwas very low.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
