Family of labourers loses 2 members in wall collapse

New Delhi: Just four days after arriving in Delhi in search of employment, a woman and her teenage son died when a decades-old boundary wall collapsed on their makeshift tent in north Delhi’s Sehgal Colony.

Two other family members were injured in the incident.

Meera (40) and her son Ganpath (17) died, while her elder son, Dashrath (19) and brother-in-law Nanhe (35), sustained injuries and are undergoing treatment.

According to police and fire officials, the family had set up a tin shelter on the premises of a residential construction site near Raj Nivas, where they had started working as daily wage labourers for Rs 500 a day.

“We came just four days ago to earn a better livelihood. Now we are returning with two bodies,” Nanhe said, speaking from his hospital bed.

He said that his brother is still in the village and is unaware of the incident.

Nanhe said that they had pitched the tent a couple of feet away from the boundary wall. “It suddenly collapsed. I was outside with Dashrath but Meera and Ganpath were inside and couldn’t escape. I was in shock... I remember people pulling us out and shouting,” he recalled.

The incident occurred around 9.40 am. Officials received a call regarding the wall collapse at 9.53 am.

A Delhi Fire Services official confirmed the identities of the woman and her son and said that both were declared dead at Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital.

Locals claimed that the boundary wall, built in the 1960s and stretching over 250 metres, collapsed following continuous rainfall. They alleged that trees on the elevated land behind the wall had recently been cut down to make way for ongoing construction, which destabilised the soil.