Heavy downpour brings down wall at pvt construction site, two labourers dead

Tragedy struck a family of four working as labourers at a private construction site in Delhi’s VVIP Civil Lines area on Tuesday morning. Forty-year-old Meera was preparing food for her family near the site behind the Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s house in Sehgal Colony when an adjacent wall suddenly collapsed. The incident left Meera and her 17-year-old son, Ganpat, dead at the spot. Meera’s older son, 19-year-old Dashrath, and another family member, Nanne (35), sustained grievous injuries and were rushed to hospital.

Locals attributed the collapse to alleged reckless construction practices by the builder, pointing to blue-coloured tin sheets erected along the wall that they say weakened its structure. Tuesday’s heavy downpour was blamed for triggering the failure. According to Deepak Khanna, a local resident whose house was also damaged, a section of the 300-metre-long wall had previously collapsed, though no injuries occurred at that time, and no corrective action was taken despite complaints against the builder.

Construction reportedly continued unabated despite warnings. Another resident, Gautam Sehgal, supported Khanna’s account, stating that work was being carried out on a private plot and earlier warnings had gone unheeded. He noted that the colony lies just 50 metres from the residence of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, and alleged that the construction was illegal.

First responder Delhi Police constable Prem Singh, together with local residents, evacuated the four victims from the debris and sent them to a nearby hospital. Locals said the collapse happened so suddenly there was no time for the family to escape.

Jathedar Avtar Singh, a local BJP leader and former mayor, termed the incident extremely unfortunate and said "the builders should consciously provide proper accommodation to the workers."

“This place is a few meters away from L-G house and I believe that the construction is being carried out without following the safety parameters. We demand a probe in the matter and action on the culprits,” he added.

As per Delhi Fire Service (DFS), a call related to the wall collapse in the Civil Lines area was received at 9:55 am. The caller mentioned some people being trapped under the rubble.

Based on the call, a fire team along with Delhi Police reached the spot and four people were rescued from the debris.