Ghaziabad building collapse: VK Singh assures action against those responsible

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs VK Singh on Sunday assured strict action against guilty in the building collapse incident in Ghaziabad, which claimed one life.

Singh, who is Member of Parliament from Ghaziabad, told ANI that he has directed the administration to order an evacuation of illegal buildings and demolish them if required.

"The inquiry has been ordered. We have directed the administration to take strict action against those responsible. Seven people were rescued, one of them succumbed to injuries. Rescue operations are on. We have directed the administration to vacate illegal buildings and demolish them if need be," Singh said.

Meanwhile, a labourer who suffered injuries during the incident said, a crack had appeared on one of the building columns but they were told by the builder to fill it and carry on with their routine work.

"A crack appeared in the column of the building this morning. The builder told us to fill the cracks with cement and forced us to continue. We were working on the upper floor; the column must have collapsed on the ground floor," one of the labourers said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team has so far rescued seven people from the debris of the building which collapsed in Ghaziabad's Missal Gadi on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad to visit the site and lodge an FIR in the connection.

Ritu Maheshwari, District Megistrate, Ghaziabad told ANI, that Prima facie, it appears that the building collapsed because of the poor quality material being used in the construction.

Sanjay Kumar DG, NDRF said, that three more people are feared trapped under the rubble.

"Four teams are working on the collapse site, it's a congested area but we have portable equipment which helped us. Possibilities are that three more people are trapped inside, our aim is to complete the rescue operation soon and if it stretches till night we're prepared for that too," Kumar said.