MUMBAI: An eight-year-old boy was killed and his mother injured after a portion of the ceiling plaster collapsed on them early on Friday at their Goregaon home. The family lived in an MMRDA building for project-affected people (PAP), which was built 10 years ago.
Residents said this is the second time a ceiling plaster crash had occurred and despite petitioning the authorities repeatedly, no repairs had been undertaken. Goregaon police had not pressed any charges at the time of going to press.
Arsalan Ansari, a school-goer, lived with his mother, Fehmida (36) and grandmother at Aman P8 society, part of a large cluster of 30 MMRDA buildings. The Ansaris live here on rent. The house was rented from an individual who used to live in Bandra’s Bharat Nagar slums and due to a project there, he was moved to the Goregaon MMRDA building a decade ago along with other PAPs.
Around 4am, the ceiling plaster collapsed in the Ansari’s 225-square-foot accomodation. The debris buried Arsalan and struck his mother on her face. The child’s grandmother was asleep on a cot and woke up with a start. She rushed to neighbouring homes, screaming for help. “We were all fast asleep. By the time we woke up and stumbled into the Ansari home, there was debris all over, some of which was soaked in blood,” said Mewalal Gupta, a neighbour. Someone dialled the police emergency number ‘100’. After the police vehicle arrived, neighbours placed the severely injured child and his mother into it. They were rushed to Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle, where Arsalan was declared dead. His traumatized mother was admitted. Witnesses said she had suffered injuries to her eyes, nose, lips as well as her legs.
“Arsalan’s father is a driver in central Mumbai and does not live with them. He visits the family sometimes,” a neighbour said. “Arsalan was an only child. His grandmother is distraught. The family was facing financial difficulties for a long time. The child never bothered his mother with unnecessary demands,” the neighbour added.
About four years ago, another house on the third floor of the same building had witnessed a ceiling plaster collapse. “The family had escaped narrowly. Since then, we have repeatedly written to the MMRDA for carrying out repairs,” said Qasam Ahmed Shaikh, the society’s secretary. He added a couple of months ago, some of the residents had a meeting with an MMRDA officer at their Bandra office. “We were told that our set of 10 buildings (P1 to P10) was a disaster and in a couple of years, we would be moved to a new accommodation. We demanded to know what would happen to us if a crisis situation arose before that,” said Shaikh. He added that some of the PAPs in these buildings were moved here from Bharat Nagar slums in Bandra, some from Sakinaka and others from Andheri’s Four Bungalows.
Following the incident, local corporator Sandeep Patel met the MMRDA authorities with a letter seeking an audit of the buildings. “While the MMRDA has constructed these buildings to accommodate PAPs, they are poorly maintained. The planning authority does not have the infrastructure to maintain these buildings and any kind of repairs required has to go through a lengthy tender process. Many of these buildings are in a shoddy condition despite not being very old and so, a structural audit of them is needed,” said Patel. He has also demanded financial assistance for the Ansaris.
MMRDA did not comment when contacted by TOI.
