The residents of the area in northwest Delhi’s Usmanpur where a house collapsed on Wednesday, killing six people, said the tenants on the ground floor of the building had vacated the premises on Tuesday evening.
“A vendor and an auto mechanic, who ran shops on the ground floor, had vacated their establishments on Tuesday evening,” said Chotelal, 45, a resident of Gali No. 9 in the area. “An expert had told them to vacate the house for a couple of days in order to fix the cracks in the building’s foundation. The family had decided to leave at around 10 am today,” he said
The family owns a brass manufacturing and polishing unit in north Delhi’s Farsh Khana area and had moved into the Brahmpuri house in early December last year. The police said the building was two-storeyed but the family had constructed two more floors last year after the marriages of three brothers.
Meanwhile, the MCD said also it will set up a panel of engineers to identify structurally unsafe buildings and do the needful to address the situation.
The issue was also raised by both Opposition Congress and the ruling BJP councillors at a meeting of the MCD standing committee.