Kanpur building collapse: ‘Accused got 5 storeys built in 45 days’

The building collapse in Kanpur’s Chakeri area claimed seven lives. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav)

Five storeys of the underconstruction building in Kanpur, the collapse of which on February 1 claimed seven lives, had come up in only 45 days, officials of Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) have said.

Mehtab Alam, the owner of the building and former president of Samajwadi Party’s Kanpur district unit, has been absconding with his family since the collapse. An FIR on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been lodged against Alam and an unidentified contractor. Police said they are conducting raids to nab Alam, who has a leather business and owns two tanneries in Chakeri area, where the building was located.

Chief Town Planner Ashish Shivpuri said the building was being constructed without KDA’s permission. “In November, Mehtab Alam had submitted an application, seeking permission for construction of the building. We raised an objection as he had not furnished a master plan, location plan and the site plan. He had not even clearly stated in the application whether he was constructing a commercial building or a housing complex. Since he could not submit the required documents, his application was rejected,” he said.

Shivpuri added that despite KDA refusing permission, Alam went ahead with the construction. “KDA officials sealed the under construction building in December. The work still continued and within 45 days, Alam got five floors constructed. The construction of the sixth floor was on when the building collapsed.”

Kanpur District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said eight KDA officials — an executive engineer, assistant engineer, junior engineer and five supervisors — have been suspended as they did not initiate any action or report the department about the illegal construction in progress.

On February 1, construction workers were having lunch when the building collapsed. Besides claiming seven lives, the collapse left 16 people injured.

NDRF personnel completed rescue work at the site on Sunday. “It was a tough job to remove the debris and rescue the victims as the building was located in a congested lane,” said Alok Kumar Singh, Commandant of NDRF’s Varanasi unit.

Among those killed in the incident, five hailed from Kanpur — masons Sarvesh Kumar Kushwaha (40) and Ram Sevak Pal (35), labourers Ram Singh (45) and Shiv Swaroop (36) and Ujjawal Tiwari (20), who was assisting his father Santosh Tiwari, reportedly a supervisor at the site. The two remaining victims, labourers Nirmala (54) and Hameed (50), hailed from Chhattisgarh and UP’s Hamirpur district, respectively.

Vivek (35), who was among the 16 injured, told The Indian Express, “I was having my food after the first half of the day when the building collapsed. I was working at the site for last three months,” he said. Vivek has suffered an injury in the spinal cord and hospitalised.

The state government has directed Kanpur Commissioner Mohammad Iftikharuddin to submit a report on the lapses that led to the tragedy.