House collapse claims 2 lives at market in Sealdah

KOLKATA: Two persons died and one was injured when portions of a two-storeyed building at Baithakkhana Market in Sealdah collapsed early on Monday morning. It is believed that heavy rain over the last 24 hours led to the cave-in of the century-old building, which the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had declared “insecure” years back.

The deceased — Gopal Naskar, a 60-year-old local resident and 48-year old trader Manik Jana from Midnapore’s Daspur — had taken shelter in the building on Sunday night. The house has around 20 shops, majority of them sell puffed rice during the day and serves as a shelter for those from far-off places. Both Naskar and Jana were in deep sleep on the ground floor when large concrete chunks came crashing down. Both got buried under debris.



Another youth, who was also sleeping on the ground floor, could sniff danger and managed to rush out, but not before a chunk fell on his head. He was taken to the hospital with a broken skull. Though still critical, he is responding to treatment, a source said.

Kolkata Police has started two separate cases against the owner of the building who, a section of KMC building department officials claimed, was absconding. According to a civic official, KMC had slapped five notices on the building in last five years, asking the owner to undertake necessary repairs or vacate the building. The civic body was about to issue a distress warrant against the owner.

“All our requests fell on deaf ears. The owner did not take any measure and the condition of the building worsened in all these years. We were about to issue a distress warrant and force the owner to undertake an immediate repair, but the accident struck before that,” a KMC building department official said.

According to mayor Sovan Chatterjee, KMC has lodged an FIR against the owner for the death of two persons. He expressed apprehensions of more collapses as many buildings in the locality are in a bad shape. “Special concession would be provided to the owners of rickety buildings who would take up repair works,” he said.

Local traders, however, claimed that the lives could have been saved had the police or civic workers not delayed the rescue operations. “It is true that a police team and local civic workers started the rescue operation from early morning. However, they could not do anything effective till disaster management group workers joined them with necessary equipment to bring out the trapped traders. Had these experts of rescue operations reached early, the lives could have been saved,” said Anil Manna, a local trader.