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New Delhi: A day after six people died when an illegal building collapsed in south Delhi’s Saidulajab on Saturday evening, friends and family of the deceased and injured alleged that the rescue operation was slow and that authorities lacked adequate equipment.
Most of those injured were engineers and doctors studying at coaching institutes in the area and living in the neighbourhood, HT has learnt.
Prateek Yadav, 24, a BTech graduate and friend of a deceased Nalin Rai, alleged that the rescue operation — led by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) — had only one gas cutter and no scanners to detect bodies under the debris. “They were very slow and did not have enough equipment. If they had been able to move the debris earlier, people may have been saved,” he said.
DK Dheeraj, 43, Nalin’s uncle, who witnessed the operation from 6am to 8am until his nephew’s body was recovered, made similar allegations. “I have seen such operations by other forces. This one was indeed slow,” he said.
The NDRF officials did not respond to HT’s request for a comment on the allegations.
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