It happened 400m from civic HQ, yet...

It is being alleged that the municipal commissioner of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC was busy at a Shivrajyabhishek Sohala Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Coronation in Vasai and chose not to visit an accident site at Virar where three labourers died Around a dozen labourers from the povertystricken Marathwada region were brought to redevelop a building in Virar East recently which had collapsed trapping four of the workers on TuesdayAround 326 pm on Tuesday a wall at the underconstruction residential building collapsed trapping four labourers mdash Laxmibai Ghavane 38 Radhabai Navghare 43 Sahubai Sule 45 and Nandabai GhavaneThe 28yearold Nandabai is battling for her life at a hospital The other three died as they allegedly did not get immediate medical help at the siteMunicipal Commissioner centre Anilkumar Pawar of VVCMC at the Shivrajyabhishek Sohala in Vasai PicsHanif PatelSources at the spot told midday that after the accident at the site which is hardly 400metres away from the head office of Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC local residents as well as traffic police personnel rushed to rescue those trappedldquoThe local residents brought a ladder and began to rescue the labourers Fire brigade officials arrived after 415pm By the time Fire Brigade officials reached all the victims were rescuedrdquo said a sourceldquoNo facilities were provided by the municipal corporation to rush the victims to hospital The labourers were rescued by local residents and traffic police personnel who bundled them into auto rickshaws to a nearby hospitalrdquo the source added A source at VVCMC head office told midday that civic commissioner Anilkumar Pawar was apprised of the accident ldquobut he chose to attend the Shivrajyabhishek Sohala Coronation programme in Vasai West because he was the organiser of the eventrdquolsquoI am busy at an eventrsquoAfter the accident when this correspondent called AnilKumar Pawar on Tuesday evening for the report of the accident he said ldquoI am busy at an event I will call you laterrdquoTalking to midday BJP leader Manoj Patil said ldquoThere are no rules in Vasai Virar Nalasopara All the rules are flouted right under the nose of the civic body and revenue officials and they are not even botheredrdquoldquoToday three people died and one is struggling for life at a hospital The officials did not bother to check whether safety measures were taken by the contractor and builder They did not even visit the accident site The head office of the municipal corporation is hardly a few metres away but the commissioner did not think it important to visit the site because the deceased were poor peoplerdquo Patil added ldquoHad any influential people died in such an accident I am sure the civic chief would have sent ambulances to the site But nothing like that happened for the poor soulsrdquo Patil addedA source added that after a female labourer was bundled into an auto rickshaw her relative was crying as the woman had stopped respondingto himLocals furious with civic bodyldquoA lot of illegal construction works are taking place right under the chiefrsquos nose but the civic officials are not bothered to even remove encroachments next to its head officerdquo said a local fruit sellerldquoIt would have taken hardly 3 minutes even if civic officials had walked to the accident spot from their head office The fire brigade reached the spot after 45 minutesrdquo said a local vegetable vendorldquoThe traffic police kept everything aside and stepped forward to rescue the victims but the civic officials were too lazy to reach on time The traffic officials also stopped autorickshaws as there was no ambulance at the site to rush the victims to hospitalrdquo said a flower sellerThe labourers hail from Nanded and Parbhani districts said a police officer ldquoThe contractor had brought 12 labourers to the site recently and no safety measures were followedrdquo said the officerSenior Inspector Rajendra Kamble of Virar police station said ldquoWe have registered a First Information Report FIR against the contractor builder and architectrdquoldquoThe 40yearold builder Chirag Doshi and 33yearold contractor Bharat Suresh Patel have been arrested They were produced before Vasai court that sent them into police custody for two days The architect Umesh Kekre is on the run but soon we will nab himrdquo Kamble addedCivic chief explainsWhen asked why he did not visit the site despite being so close civic chief Pawar said ldquoI was busy in a meeting till 8pm in our office in Vasai But our deputy municipal commissioner disaster management team medical team and others were there at the accident site till 11pm How is it important if I am not there at the accident siterdquo When asked why no ambulance was provided Pawar twisted the topic and said ldquoAt 5am Wednesday we rushed an injured worker to KEM hospital to admit her We spoke to KEM doctors What else is requiredrdquo When asked why the fire brigade reached 45minutes after the accident Pawar said ldquoThe Fire Brigade team was dispatched to the spot within five minutes after we received a call There was no delayrdquo He did not provide the time when its team received the call for rescue operation