A day after collapse,2 held for negligence

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has blamed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the incident,saying the collapse was due to sheer neglect of civic officials.

Dikshit told Newsline,“I was saddened to hear about the tragedy and about the people who died. All this because of blatant neglect by municipal officials.”

She said she will discuss the mishap with Chief Secretary P K Tripathi on Monday,and take a call on how the government will handle the lapse by the agency.

MCD Commissioner K S Mehra has suspended two officials of the Buildings department (West Zone) and ordered a vigilance inquiry into the incident.

Rescue efforts,meanwhile,were on till late Sunday evening. No more bodies or injured have been found in the rubble,police said.

Neighbours said owners of a restaurant were digging a 10-foot-deep basement to expand their business,but the excavation weakened the foundation of the building on plot WZ-6B,leading to its collapse.

Owner of the collapsed structure,Ramesh Kumar,whose wife was killed in the incident,told police that he had complained to MCD about his house being affected by the construction activity in the adjacent plot,but no one took note.

“They started to dig three pits side-by-side. I called MCD assistant engineer and showed the cracks that appeared on our building. I told them that the structure was getting weaker because of the construction work in the adjoining plot,” he said.

The building collapse claimed four lives,among which three were of the same family.