As many as five laborers were killed and six injured when a water tank at a labor camp in Bhosari, the construction for which was completed just three days ago, fell apart in the early hours of Thursday. The Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation said the tank was illegal and was constructed without taking permission.

Police officials said the tank was constructed next to makeshift houses at a labor camp of a private construction company in Sadguru Nagar, Bhosari. The incident occurred around 5.30 am when some laborers went near the tank to bathe and brush, when the tank suddenly collapsed onto them.

PCMC engineer Makrand Nikam said the contractor had not taken permission from PCMC before building the tank or setting up the make-shift houses nearby. “Even otherwise, we can’t grant permission to any constructions as the entire Sadguru Nagar falls under a red zone which is a no-construction zone,” he told. The Indian Express. Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh said, “Any construction in the red zone area is illegal. The water tank was built illegally.”

When asked as to why illegal constructions were even allowed to come up in red zone areas like Sadguru Nagar, the PCMC chief said, ”A decision regarding the red zone needs to be taken at political and bureaucratic level.”

Nikam said, “We take regular action against new constructions which come up in the area. All of them are illegal. We had also warned residents about their illegal status. These constructions came up in the past few days and were on our radar.” Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissioner Vinaykumar Choubey also visited the spot along with top officials. However, he did not speak to the press.

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BJP MLA Mahesh Landge said, ”PCMC should keep a strict eye on new constructions which are coming up in the area. The loss of innocent lives is painful and we must ensure such incidents are not repeated.”

Landge said Sadguru Nagar came up much before the area was declared a red zone. These locals have been living here for 40-50 years. The area came under the red zone much later. I have been fighting to get justice for them,” he said. Chandan Paswan, one of the injured, said, ”I was on my way to the toilet when I saw the tank collapse on some labourers. My hand too is injured as a tile fell on it.”

Paswan said he saw two-three laborers who had been hit on the head and were lying motionless with blood all over. “They seemed to have died on the spot as the tank fell apart and collapsed on them,” he said.

Santoshkumar Sahani, another laborer whose legs were injured, said, “At one moment, some of us were brushing our teeth and others were bathing to get ready for the day’s work. Then, suddenly chaos erupted. We were thrust away with force by torrents of gushing water and were violently hit by massive chunks of the tank walls. In that instant I knew that not everyone would come out alive.”

Sahani said construction of the tank was completed just three days ago. “On Wednesday, they filled the tank to half its capacity and on Thursday at 5 am they filled the tank to the brim.”

Sahani moved to Pune just 20 days ago from his native village in Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh, and had started work at the construction site in Sadguru Nagar. Officials said migrant laborers of the camp belong to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

“Initial information suggests that this labor camp is for workers on the site of the NCC construction company, and Shri Vinayak Industrial Services has provided laborers for this project. It is this labor contractor who built the makeshift houses and the water tank. A probe has revealed that the labor contractor built the tank just three days ago. Despite knowing that filling up the weak structure with water would damage it, they filled the tank to its full capacity,” said Senior Inspector Vishwanath Chavan, in-charge of Bhosari police station.

“We have booked the proprietor of the labor contractor firm on charges of culpable homicide among other charges. He has been detained. We will try to ascertain who else was responsible for this incident,” Senior Inspector Chavan said.

After the incident 11 victims were rushed to hospitals in the vicinity. Three were pronounced dead on arrival and two more succumbed to their injuries during treatment. The deceased have been identified as Navin Jonna, Malla Mahakur, Sonu Kumar, Ravindra Kumar and Sudam Behra. The injured persons include Santoshkumar Sahani, Shivjatan Nishad, Munna Ramesh Chaudhary, Mohammed Salim Mangru Shaikh, Jitendrakumar Mandal and Mohammed Harun Rashid.