Thane building slab collapse: BJP, Cong demand action on civic officials

A day after a slab collapse in a building in Rabodi in Thane killed two people, the BJP and Congress on Monday demanded that civic officials and builders connected to the structure be booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Thane BJP chief and MLC Niranjan Davkhare said civic officials and builders were to blame as it was their responsibility to ensure people are moved from dilapidated and dangerous buildings to transit camps.

The city's Congress chief, Vikrant Chavan, expressed similar views, both agreeing that police should register a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the incident.

The Thane Municipal Corporation, in a release issued on Sunday evening, had said the building had been declared dangerous and dilapidated after an audit in 2013 but occupants had refused to move despite several notices.

The civic release had claimed local police, the water supply department and power distribution firm were asked to disconnect supply from their respective ends but nothing had came out of this move either.

A police official said an accidental death case had been registered and probe into the chain of events that caused the slab collapse and deaths as well as checking of documents of the structure were underway.