Scores die in India building collapse

The death toll in the collapse of a seven-storied building in the city of Thane, contingous with teeming Mumbai and less than 30 km from the seat of state government, is now 75. As rescue operations concluded today, three days after the structure came down like a house of cards, 62 injured people, many of them in a serious condition, have been rushed to hospitals both in Thane and Mumbai.
listen to the report from Carol Andrade in Mumbai...
As the rage among the public mounts, the government has swung into belated action, arresting five people so far. Among them are two builders, one civic official and a police sub-inspector. The collapse is being described as the worst calamity of its kind in the country ever, and for the first time, a senior bureaucrat and a mid-level police officer in charge of the area where the building is located, have also been suspended for dereliction of duty.
Those who died and have been injured are families who lived in the first five floors of the building. Two other floors were in the process of being completed. And their very occupation of the premises underlines the level of brazen corruption and greed that rule the construction business in land-hungry metros and cities in India.
Practically all these families had allegedly been installed by the builders themselves to create what is known as third-party interests in case they were taken to court over the fact that the entire structure was illegal. It had no permissions or licences to come up but it did anyway, as the civic bureaucracy, its related departments and the police looked away. Courts in India are notorious for not taking speedy decisions in the case of buildings occupied by those who will also go to court, ostensibly to save the roof over their heads.
Springing up almost like a mushroom in three months on marshy land, it was a glaring example of haphazard construction using sub-standard materials, meant to make a quick buck for the builders. No-one seems to know who designed it and the police are also looking out for the architect.
As the state government swings in to action, nothing that is going to be revealed in this particular case will surprise the public who are familiar with the machinations of those who rule in collusion with those who pay to exploit them. For example, the entire belt in which the ill-fated building lies, is dotted with hundreds of such structures that have come up in flagrant violation of every building rule in the book. Recently, the Thane municipal corporation which administers the city and its environs announced it was going to fine these buildings heavily. It was, however, also going to regularize them. Fining heavily usually means that the builders pay twice the various stamp duties and registration fees involved, but as these hardly compare with what people pay for even the worst housing in Mumbai and Thane, this is no deterrent.
When the police finally tracked down one of the absconding builders from his village in the state of UP, the man was so shaken by the pictures he was shown of the human costs involved that he is reported to have said “Arrest me and punish me. I am guilty”.