Building collapse toll rises to 61; inquiry commission set up

Tamil Nadu Government today set up an inquiry commission to probe the collapse of a 11-storey under-construction residential building here in which the death toll has mounted to 61 with no survivors found for the second straight day.
As rescue operations by multiple agencies entered the sixth day, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced that the one-man commission headed by Justice (Retd) R Reghupathy will probe the circumstances leading to the collapse of the building at suburban Porur on June 28.
"The Commission will find out whose ignorant attitude resulted in such a mishap that left many workers dead and others injured and decide on (fixing) those responsible for it," she said in a release.

The recue team personnel could not find any survivor for the second consecutive day today and pulled out 14 more bodies with the toll mounting to 61 as they indicated the operations might be nearing completion soon.
"As of now, 61 are dead and out of this 41 are men and 20 women," K Kulandaisamy, Director, Public Health told PTI.
The focus of the rescue operations was on reaching a spot - estimated to be around 2,000 square feet in the basement - where 20-25 people were feared trapped, revenue officials said adding they wanted to ensure all survivors were pulled out.

DIG of National Disaster Response Force S P Selvan said the operations were likely to end by tomorrow evening.

"We hope that the rescue work will be fully completed by evening tomorrow," he said.
A total of 27 persons, including eight women, were rescued alive till July 1.
In a related development, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority today commenced inspection of high-rise buildings in the city in the backdrop of the mishap.
Eighteen teams comprising 54 officials from the CMDA inspected eight multi-storeyed and 12 special (high-rise) buildings in various parts of the city, a senior CMDA official said.
With four women and a man from Odisha being among the deceased, Odisha Minister for Labour Prafulla Kumar Mallik visited the city and announced a relief of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the victims belonging to his state. He also called on those undergoing treatment at a private hospital here.