Nirmala Haldar was away visiting her mother when her family and relatives were crushed under the rubble after the five-storeyed building where they lived collapsed on Monday night.

The Haldars and the extended family were 17 of the 67 people who died last night when the building in Lalita park area of Laxminagar collapsed. Nirmala came back from her mother's home in Old Delhi to find hers reduced chunks of concrete with twisted iron rods jutting out. It had been her family's home for ten years now after they had migrated from Maldatown in Kolkata

"My entire family is dead, my maternal aunt had come to our house with her kids - they too are dead, I am left alone," she manages to say after a long silence. The night before she had had to stand and watch as all 17 were pulled out dead from under the rubble. She had stood crying outside the Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital as each of the bodies was wheeled in for postmortem this morning.

Urmila, 19, lost her mother, two sisters and brother while she was cooking in the house next door. Nothing is known of her father yet. Deepali's 22-year old son died while she and others in her family were out attending someone's marriage. Dillip's wife, mother and kids are also dead. He was at work in a factory in Anand Vihar.

Locals and survivors speculate about what brought the building down. Some say it was waterlogging from the Yamuna since the monsoons, some say the illegally constructed two top floors and the forced crowding.

Most of the occupants are Bengalis who initially lived in jhggis on the opposite side of the road. They were later shifted into the building on rent. Charged by headcount, most families hid their children to save money. The men were mostly auto-drivers, factory workers and vegetable vendors while some of the women worked nearby as domestic servants.


The official numbers declare 67 dead and more than 75 people injured. “People are still alive under all that rubble. Stuck, they are using their mobile phones and calling up relatives and friends, pleading for help, but the police officials are really slow in the process. Last night and today we could have saved more people if only the authorities were more active and vigilant.” says Vijendra Bhalla living in the building close by.

The Delhi government has announced an amount of Rs two lakh for the next kin of the deceased, Rs one lakh for minor and Rs.50,000/- for injured. Nirmala’s brothers and well wishers from her hometown are now extremely worried and concerned about how the government’s much needed financial grant will reach her.