Hyderabad: The death toll in the Nanakramguda building collapse mounted to 11 after all the bodies were recovered by rescue teams in a 32-hour operation. The bodies were handed over to the families after autopsy.
Only two persons, a mother and her child, survived the tragedy. The police detained builder Satyanarayana Singh, but has not arrested him so far. A team of experts has started to examine what caused the collapse.
“Thirteen people were sleeping in the building when the mishap occurred. Two people were rescued and are alive. The rest are dead,” said a senior officer from the Cyberabad police.
Police sources from Cyberabad said Satyana-rayana Singh was picked up from Pamba in Kerala. He has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Cyberabad commissioner of police Sandeep Shandilya said, “The investigation is underway. The expert team investigating the causes of the mishap will give us a report soon. Based on that report, we will proceed with the criminal charges,” he said.
The National Disaster Response Force removed a large portion of the debris in one specific area which helped them recover the bodies. “Some bodies were crushed under the rubble. After removing the debris from a side and the middle, most of the bodies were visible and retrievable,” said an NDRF official.
The victims, who used to sleep in the unfinished building, were Neti Paidamma, 35, her daughter Neti Gowri, 13, her husband Sambaiah, 40, and Venkat Lakshmi, Kotipalli Polinaidu, 30, Narayanamma Polina-idu, 23, Pridi Polinaidu, 25, Piridi Mohan, 3, Na-dagalla Shankar, 23, Durga Rao, 25, all natives of Vizianagaram, and Shiva, 30, of Chhattis-garh. Shiva’s wife Rekha and son Deepak survived.
Two more babus suspended for crash
Two more officers of Serilingampally municipal circle were suspended following the Nanakramguda building collapse that claimed 11 lives. Town planning section officers R. Rajender and P. Madhu were suspended as they did not stop the unauthorised construction of builder Satyanarayana Singh.
On Friday, Serilingampally deputy municipal commissioner V. Manohar and circle 11 assistant city planner Krishna Mohan were placed under suspension.
Joint commissioner Suresh Rao has been appointed as incharge deputy commissioner for Serilingampally.
JNTU pins blame on builder
The final report issued by JNTU civil engineering experts who investigated the Nanakramguda building collapse blamed builder Satyanarayana Singh for faulty construction. Dr N.V. Ramana Rao, professor of civil engineering, JNTU, said, “It is clear that the building collapsed because of inadequate design, bad quality of materials and excessive loading on foundation soil and columns.”
Dr Ramana Rao said, “Buildings were constructed too close to each other; it led to excessive pressure on the soil. The adjacent excavation may have also aggravated the problem but this we can ascertain only after complete removal of debris.” The demolition of illegal structures in the West Zone has been postponed to Tuesday due to the long weekend, and will resume on December 13.
