Mumbai: 20-day-old among 33 dead in Hussaini building crash

All the people who were pulled out of the rubble of south Mumbai's Hussaini building after noon on the day it crashed were dead, taking the toll to 33 on Friday, the authorities said. Among those who were crushed is Burhanuddin Mandsorawala, a 20-day-old boy whose body was recovered around 3.30 am on Friday along with his mother's. The last body was removed from the site two hours later, and the rescue operation, which left seven firemen and rescuers injured, were wrapped up by noon.

Three of the bodies that were recovered since Thursday were mutilated. One belonged to Syed Jaffar. Three children, two of them aged three and another aged six, were declared dead earlier.

The 16 people injured in the collapse were taken to hospital, and the condition of three of these people, who are admitted to Saifee Hospital, is said to be serious. Another three were discharged after being treated for minor injuries.

Among those who had a narrow escape were Gulam Gaus, who had sought refuge in a cupboard while rubble was raining all around him, and a cook and his two helpers who had opportunely stepped out for a tea break from making biryani.

The JJ Marg police lodged an accidental report regarding the incident and said they are investigating to find out if there was any foul play.

On Friday, as the authorities got to pulling down the nearby Jumani building, which had partially given way on Thursday, occupants from old, rickety buildings in the neighbourhood dropped by at the site, staring at the teardown and sharing their fears about being trapped in the rubble of their creaking homes.

Hussain Chhassa, who resides in a building a stone's throw from the crash site, said, "We have not moved out of our building because we fear that we will lose our home foreever. But the building is in bad shape and desperately needs repairs. We are worried that MHADA will come and slap an eviction notice asking us to leave. We do not want that to happen either."

Family members of those who used to call Hussaini building home also showed up at the spot to salvage what little they could of their personal effects from the wreckage, even as police officials were sifting through the debris to retrieve victims'' belongings for safekeeping. So far, cash, ornaments and other household items have been recovered. "Most of the items that were retrieved are in the custody of the Mumbai police and would be returned to the residents later," a police official said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Ward C, where Hussaini building stood, has 5,800 buildings of which 4,000 are cessed, meaning their occupants pay a tax (cess) to MHADA for the structure's repairs, and the rest are under the civic administration's purview.

Jivak Ghegadmal, asssistant municipal commissioner of the ward, said the housing body needed to treat the issue of unevacuated rundown buildings with the gravity it deserves. "These old, cessed buildings are extremely ill-maintained. Its MHADA's responsibility to carry out a structural audit for all of them. This audit is valid for five years. The BMC is not involved in it. MHADA should take these audits seriously," he said.

Responding to the charge, a MHADA officer said: "We conduct structural repairs of buildings every four to five years. If we find any building is dilapidated, we take approproate measures." He declined comment when questioned about audtits.

Ghegadmal said that of the 1,800 buildings under the BMC's charge, 80 per cent are old and were served structural audit notices. "Of the 1,410 buildings that were audited, we have the reports of around 250," Ghegadmal said.