Ghaziabad: Five members of a family sustained injuries after the floor of their first-floor located flat collapsed and caved in to the ground floor flat around 1am on Wednesday at the Ghaziabad Development Authority’s (GDA) Indirakunj scheme at Arthala in Sahibabad, police said.
Police identified the injured as Mohammad Zahid, 55, his wife Shehnaz, 50, Zahid’s mother Aliman, 80, his son Jabir, 22, and daughter Nazrana, 20.
“Zahid’s 22-year-old daughter suffered severe head injuries and her health is being monitored regularly. His elderly woman also suffered injuries. The other three injured are stable. The floor of their first-floor house collapsed at night when all five were asleep. As a result, they fell to the ground floor. Locals and police rushed the injured to the hospital,” said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (Sahibabad circle) Shweta Yadav.
Police said the flats in the scheme have ground plus two floors and have become dilapidated over the past several years.
Mohammad Shoaib, Zahid’s nephew and neighbour, said he heard a loud sound last Tuesday night and then rushed to his uncle’s house.
“I live two houses away. All five of my uncle’s family had fallen inside the vacant ground floor flat. With them, the almirahs, refrigerator, and other household items also fell in. I along with locals rushed them to hospital. Police also arrived soon for help. The flats here are in miserable condition and unsafe, but no one is listening to us,” Shoaib said.
“During monsoon and rains, we have to stay in beds or sit on chairs when water enters our houses regularly. We complained to GDA many times in the past, but there was no response. The roof of my house also collapsed about one-and-half years ago,” he added.
GDA officials said the Indirakunj scheme was developed with 420 flats in 1989-90, and about 408 flats are allotted.
The incident happened due to excessive rains during the past several days. The houses in the scheme are in the list of dilapidated flats, and the list was earlier sent to the district administration, they added.
“The residents have already been asked to take up repairs, but they did not get the repairs done and have continued occupying flats. The GDA in 2009 roped in about ₹50 lakhs for repairs of flats. The collapsed flat has an open terrace. The occupants constructed a room on the open terrace about 10 years ago. Due to lack of support and dilapidated conditions, the structure collapsed,” said GDA’s media coordinator Rudresh Shukla.