Evacuation notices ignored *Residents told MHADA to postpone repair Four persons died and 15 others were injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the crowded area of Pydhonie in South Mumbai early on Thursday. The casualties include 45-year-old tenant Mohammad Salman Abdul Ajim Khatri,his aunt Fatima Ibrahim Khatri (63),and two workers in Khatris marble shop on the ground floor,Sikandar Bawul Khan (22) and Jahid Majid Ali Khan (25). The incident occurred around 1 am on Thursday when the front portion of the ground plus four-storey 124 Rahim Manzil on Bapu Khote Street collapsed within seconds. According to officials,the building,owned by one Ibrahim Khatri,was more than 70 years old and in urgent need of repair. While two families living in the building had already vacated their homes a few days ago,Salman had sought more time. According to a MHADA official,The building had been issued two notices in January and September last year,but the owners had still not vacated it. The work order to repair the building had been given,but the owners and tenants had been delaying evacuating the building for repair and recently told us to postpone repair work as a festival was coming up. According to Chief Fire Officer Uday Tatkare,the building collapsed in such a manner that it was difficult to pull out the injured and the dead from the debris. It took us more than five hours to pull them out, he said. Of the injured,10 were admitted to the civic-run J J Hospital,while the others are in a private hospital. Ten injured persons were discharged after first aid,said officials. Another fire official said it became difficult to control the crowd at night since the community in the locality is in the midst of a festival week. These kind of building collapses are a typical phenomenon in the Pydhonie area as hundreds of buildings are old and need urgent repair. The issue needs to be given high priority or there will be many more such incidents,resulting in loss of lives. The guardian minister has called a meeting with other ministers and MHADA officials regarding urgent repair of such buildings, said Amin Patel,local MLA. Structure went down in two seconds About 16 workers who had come to work in the Rainbow Marble shop on the ground floor of the building were caught off guard when the front portion of the building crashed. Nasir Ahmed,one of the workers,said: I will never forget the sight. The entire front portion crashed right in front of me. We had just gone inside the shop to take extra mattresses outside as the owner,Salmanbhai,had just alerted us that we should not sleep inside the shop today as a part of the toilet on the top floor had collapsed and it was a little risky. The minute I stepped inside the shop,it crashed. I was standing on one side of the building,holding the wall,and was saved. But my leg got stuck in the debris and later due to a short circuit,I got a shock too, he said. Salmanbhai came out to warn us and lost his life, said another worker,Arif Khan. Another eyewitness,Farida Siddiqui,said: The whole structure collapsed in less than two seconds. First we saw a cloud of dust and only after it cleared did we realise that the building had collapsed. For Shahadat Ali it has become difficult to take friend Jahid Khans family back home to Mannudi in UP. He was the only earning member of his family of 10. His family will be heartbroken,said Ali.
