Ishita Malakar, Pune
The 6-storey residential building that collapsed in Sachin Palli village, Surat on July 6 had 30 apartments in total. The search operation went on overnight and 8 people were found buried with only one alive as told by Chief Fire Officer Basant Pareek. The building, as informed by the Surat Municipal Corporation was constructed illegally and had residents in only 5 flats with each of them paying a rent of about 1200 rupees every month.
At about 6 am, the seventh body was being retrieved with 15 more residents injured. Among the seven deceased, five of them were identified as Hiramani Kewat (40), Lalji Kewat (38), Abhishek Kewat (30), Shivpujan Kewat (23) and Pravesh Kewat (21) who were originally from Madhya Pradesh. Brijesh Gaud (48) and Sahil Shaligram (17) were the other two victims of the accident as informed by the police. The accident took place at about 2:45pm when most of the residents were outside for work while few of them were working at home.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with police officials and the fire brigade were the ones who conducted the overnight search and rescue operation.
According to the Surat Municipal Corporation, the Surat Urban Development Authority owned the building initially when the construction work began illegally in 2016 and ended in 2017. The area where the building was located comes under the SMC jurisdiction and although the corporation authorities have sent the building authorities a notice for strengthening the building before the monsoons came, the building owner did not pay any heed. However, as the officials mentioned, there were no signs that the building was in such a dilapidated condition that it might collapse anytime soon. Even a real estate expert mentioned that likewise there are many such unauthorized buildings in Surat that were to be owned by SMC within a few years after the area would have been expanded.
An FIR has been launched against the owners of the building, Raj Kakadiya along with his mother Ramilaben Kakadiya under BNS Section 105 which is culpable homicide not amounting to murder and the 47-year-old rent collector Ashwin Vekariya who has been arrested. Despite constant warnings from SMC and the building condition under danger, the building owners continued giving out flats for rent as was told by Surat police. The collapse might have been the result of structural malfunction with one of the pillars falling down.