Janjivan Bureau / Pune : Seventeen people were killed after the compound wall of a residential building collapsed in Pune’s Kondhwa today morning following heavy rains. According to police the deceased 15 from Katihar and two from Chapara. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announced Rs 5 lakh to each nearest of the deceased while Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announce Rs. Two lakh to each of the of the family. Visuals showed several cars stuck in debris. Rescue personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are at the site of the accident.
Among the dead were 10 men, five children. Work was still on to rescue some others feared trapped in the rubble.
“We are immediately issuing a Stop Work order to an adjoining building where construction activities are underway. We shall also give full relief to the victims” families,” Pune Mayor Mukta Tilak told the media here.
Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil who said he was rushing to Pune, warned that no guilty will be spared.
The Pune Collectorate and Pune Municipal Corporation authorities said they will probe the tragedy.
The victims identified are mostly labourers working on the building sites — Sunil Singh, Sonali Das, Bhima Das, Deepan Sharma, Alok Verma, Mohan Sharma, Sangeeta Devi, Neeta, Avdhesh Singh, Aman Sharma, Ravi Sharma, Ajit Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Laxmikant Sahani, Ovi Das.
Heavy rains in Pune on Thursday and Friday meant the monthly average for June had already been received, a senior India Meteorological Department official said.
Seventeen people, including four children, were killed when a portion of the compound wall of a housing society collapsed on shanties adjacent to it in Kondhwa here in the early hours of Saturday.
The shanties were set up for labourers working in a nearby construction site.
A fire brigade official said incessant rain might have led to the collapse of the wall. Pune received 73.1 millimetres of rain on Friday, the second highest rainfall in June since 2010.
According to the police, a portion of the 12 to 15-feet-high wall collapsed between 1.30 and 1.45 am.
The fire brigade, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and police rushed to the spot to carry out rescue operations.
“At least 15 people–nine men, two women and four children–have been killed in the incident, and three got injured,” an officer of Kondhwa police station said.
Police had earlier said that 17 people were killed in the incident. A fire brigade official said the victims were natives of either Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. All the injured have been shifted to hospital and District Collector Naval Kishore Ram visited the spot.
“We have ordered an inquiry and those responsible will be punished,” he said.
