I don’t feel angry anymore… just sad,says Lalita Park survivor

A “No Entry” board stands guard near the collapsed building,but the owner of N-86,the adjacent building,said he usually parks his car in the empty space to ensure the site doesn’t turn into a dump yard.

But it has transformed into one. Wrappers,rags and other such things peek out from the debris. Recently,Adil Shaqueel got the ditch filled to use it for parking. Wild flowers too have come to life.

A commission set up to look into the tragedy has again extended its deadline — now until November-end. Families of the victims have lost hope.

Shaqueel wonders when will the site be rid of the collapse tag. It is a scar in the neighbourhood and only recently a thief made away with plastic pipes. The basement still floods during the monsoon and is a threat to nearby buildings.

“Nobody is doing anything about it. A year has passed. Now,another building falls and Lalita Park surfaces again. But for how long and to what end,” he said.

Uttam,who lost his mother and sister-in-law in the Lalita Park building collapse,recalled the horror when he saw TV pictures of the Chandni Mahal building collapse. “It makes me really sad. I don’t feel angry anymore,” he said.

He is among the few “leftover” victims of the collapse who have stayed back.

Often he goes to the site of the collapse in the evenings and tries to piece together the memories of the life he led. “I miss my mother,” he said. “We lived on the third floor.”

The family — elder brother and his two children — has moved to a similar building in the neighbourhood. The compensation money amounting to Rs 4 lakh and Rs 50,000 for the injuries sustained by his daughter are deposited in a bank.

They run a Bengali hotel that caters to other migrant labourers. “Yesterday’s tragedy is a sad reminder of what we have to suffer over and over again,” Uttam said.