100-year-old Fatehpura house collapses, 1 dead

Times of India: Vadodara: Sunday, 10 August 2014.

A fortnight within three members of a family got buried under debris of their own house in Kachiya Pol, another 18-year-old girl died after her house collapsed. Yashika Mahetania was crushed under the debris after her house in Koyali Faliya in Fatehpura area collapsed early on Friday morning. Her 25-year-old brother Pavan, who too was sleeping in the house, faced severe injuries and is under treatment at the SSG Hospital. The incident occurred at about 4.45 am when the brother-sister duo was sleeping inside the house that was in dilapidated condition.

Locals said that the rickety house was over 100-year-old and was in dilapidated condition since long. Yashika was a student of class XII in Jeevan Sadhna School. She and her brother used to stay in the house and sleep in an adjacent house. On Thursday night, the duo slept in the old house that gave away. The deceased's neighbours said that her father, who was an auto-rickshaw driver, passed away six months ago.

Hasmukh Kurpe, who stays next to Mahetania's house in Koyali Faliya, accused the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) of inaction. Kurpe said that the civic body had pasted notice on the rickety house. Kurpe had even filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on August 4 to find out what action the civic body was taking in the case.

He wrote in his application that the central portion of the house had already collapsed due to water leakage. ?The wall of this dilapidated house may fall any day and it is posing danger for my house and that of other neighbours. While residents of one of the three dilapidated houses have already vacated it, life of the brother-sister duo that is still staying in the house is in danger,' the application said. Kurpe had demanded inspection report of the house too.

VMC standing committee chairman Hitendra Patel said that the dilapidated house in which the deceased was staying was caught in legal wrangles. "The brother sister duo was staying on rent in the house. A legal battle was on between the duo and the owner of the house. We had given notice thrice but we couldn't do much as the property was caught in legal wrangles." VMC officials also said Pavan owned a home in Warasia area and he had given it on rent. But the tenant wasn't vacating it.