RWA president dies in Vasant Kunj wall collapse: Time we raise concerns even if it doesn’t affect us

New Delhi, Nov 21: In a tragic the 67 year old president of the Vasant Kunj Enclave B Block residents' welfare association and German Shepherd dog were killed after a portion of the wall adjacent to their building collapsed on them earlier this week.

Pratap Singh Tanwar who had recovered from COVID-19 last week was relaxing in the lawn of his bungalow with his family when the incident took place at around 7 pm on Monday.

This has brought up questions about the kind of constructions and also the quality of the same. The family has been complaining about the safety measures taking by the builders.

Tanwar's son, Siddharth says that in the past construction material falling from the under-construction building had damaged their car twice. This time, it claimed my father's life, he said.

The irony in this case is that Tanwar himself had been raising complaints about illegal constructions in the neighbourhood. He was an active man and would work extremely hard to get basic facilities to the neighbourhood. He had also raised issues about structures being erected beyond the permissible height. However no one cared to stop it, Manish Aggarwal, the RWA general secretary said in a report published in the Hindustan Times.

Tanwar's son-in-law, Santosh Kumar Singh took to Facebook and said that accidents affect us differently. If we classify people based on how they take. Up a cause, we will broadly end up with two categories. One-people who ignore thins until it applies or affects them personally. Two-others who take up the cause even if it does not directly affect them. My papa was category 2 and while our loss cannot be repaired, I would like to raise concerns as I learnt this from my papa.

Singh further writes that if you find yourself exposed to a high rise building that can potentially cause harm, please do not ignore it.

The family members alleged that the problem began soon after the construction of the neighbouring building that commenced three years ago. In this police complaint, Siddharth alleged that the builder didn't follow the safety norms. We would complain about construction materials falling on our property, but he didn't listen. They would also use substandard construction material.

The Vasant Kunj police where the complaint was registered said that the house owner, Pankaj Singh Pundhir has been arrested. He is an ex-service man working with a private firm in Gurugram.