45-year-old woman dies after falling into septic tank in Mankhurd chawl

A 45-year-old woman died after falling into a septic tank at a chawl in Mankhurd on Wednesday morning. Kalpana Pingle was rushed to the BMC-run Rajawadi Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

According to a fire brigade official, Pingle had gone to use the toilet at the Maharashtra Nagar Krishna Koyna chawl at 6.45 am when the floor of the toilet collapsed, with Pingle falling into in the 8 ft-deep septic tank below. Fire brigade officials were called, but the debris slowed down the rescue process. By the time they managed to pull her out, four hours had already passed.

The chawl was a ground plus one structure. The toilet was being maintained for the last six years by an organisation called Panchmukhi.

MNS group leader at the BMC Sandeep Deshpande demanded an inquiry into the accident. "There should be a proper probe into the matter and strict action should be taken against whoever is responsible for the mishap, whether it is the civic engineer or the organisation maintaining it," Deshpande said at the standing committee meeting on Wednesday.