Reconstruction of adjoining chawl begins, victims struggle to return to normalcy

On March 14, Shankar Lok building collapsed on the chawl, killing six of its residents, and a ground-floor resident of the dilapidated structure, whose family had refused to vacate.

Milind Khandare, a resident of Catherine Chawl, said, “Vaibhav developers, the builder appointed to redevelop the plot of the collapsed structure, has promised that within 15-20 days, our chawls will be ready for possession. He has given the chawl association Rs 50,000 to use for miscellaneous activities till our houses are re-built. He maintains that he is doing this purely on humanitarian grounds.”

Meanwhile, residents are facing a tough time returning to their daily schedule. They are at present accommodated at the housing society offices of neighbouring buildings and vacant rooms. In a ground-floor office room measuring 120 sq ft, around 10 women squeeze in to sleep at night.

Catherine Chawl Welfare Association president Shankar Agre said, “None of us have started going for work, because we don’t have our clothes. Our children have their exams in a few weeks, but they have lost their books, uniforms and computers in the collapse. They do not even have space to sit and study.” Khandare added that Chawl residents will be taking to Facebook to create awareness about their plight.

Rashiklal Magodia, another resident, said, “Local councillor Sunaina Potnis and her husband Sanjay Potnis (Shiv Sena) stay in the building next to us, and have been ruling the ward for the past 20 years. They could have used their influence to help us, but so far they haven’t done anything. They could have asked the BMC to provide us food and water till our chawl is reconstructed. We are living on the generosity of our neighbours, but for how long can this last?”

The residents said they wanted action against the BMC, the landlord and lawyer Sindha Sridharan, lone resident of the building who refused to vacate the building. “They are all pointing fingers at each other, but at the end of the day we are the ones suffering,” Magodia said.

krishna.uppuluri@expressindia.com