Ghaziabad building collapse: VK Singh assures action against those responsible

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs VK Singh on Sunday assured strict action against guilty in the building collapse incident in Ghaziabad, which claimed one life.

A five-storey under-construction building collapsed here today, killing at least one person and injuring some others, officials said.

The building was located in Akash Nagar area of the Masuri police station limits.

Singh, who is Member of Parliament from Ghaziabad, told ANI that he has directed the administration to order an evacuation of illegal buildings and demolish them if required.

"The inquiry has been ordered. We have directed the administration to take strict action against those responsible. Seven people were rescued, one of them succumbed to injuries. Rescue operations are on. We have directed the administration to vacate illegal buildings and demolish them if need be," Singh said.

Meanwhile, a labourer who suffered injuries during the incident said, a crack had appeared on one of the building columns but they were told by the builder to fill it and carry on with their routine work.

"A crack appeared in the column of the building this morning. The builder told us to fill the cracks with cement and forced us to continue. We were working on the upper floor the column must have collapsed on the ground floor," one of the labourers said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team has so far rescued seven people from the debris of the building which collapsed in Ghaziabad's Missal Gadi on Sunday afternoon.

There was no report as yet if there were more people trapped in the collapsed structure.

The incident comes within a week of a six-storey under-construction building collapsing on another five-storey building in Greater Noida.