TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: Four more bodies were recovered from the debris of the collapsed building of Ruby Residency on Saturday, even as the State government continued to voice its reluctance to go ahead with the early demolition of the adjacent buildings which have been declared unsafe.
Following the four bodies recovered on Saturday, the dead toll has risen to 31 and authorities fear that there could still be more bodies buried under the rubble.
“The body of a Barcem local is yet to be recovered, while the four bodies recovered on Saturday have been identified as workers from Jharkhand. However, their actual names will be ascertained later,” said acting collector Venancio Furtado, who has been supervising recovery operations from his camp office at the site since the past eight days.
Furtado stated that 24 bodies have been identified so far from the recovered lot. “Since the process of identification is yet to be completed, and only then will we released a list of casualties,” he added.
PWD Minister Sudhin Dhavalikar, who was also present at the site, informed reporters that the entire area had been excavated from one end of the collapsed building.
“The machinery has already begun the removal of debris towards the staircase side, where more bodies are expected to be recovered. We expect 4-5 more bodies to be recovered from the remaining portion of the debris,” said Dhavlikar.
Hoping that the recovery operations would be completed by Sunday, Furtado admitted that there could be difficulties in the identification of bodies.
“The co-workers have been changing their statements regarding the identities of the bodies,” he said.
According to sources, a person initially identified as hailing from Jharkhand was later identified as a native of Bihar and vice-versa, thereby confusing the authorities.
Labour Minister Avertano Furtado and Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldessai were among the few politicians who visited the site on Saturday.
Meanwhile, anxious relatives of the missing worker, Purso Velip of Barcem, met PWD Minister Sudhin Dhavlikar once again to request him to expedite the removal of the body. Dhavlikar politely requested them to wait for yet another day and assured them that the remaining bodies were expected to be retrieved by Sunday.
Speaking to media persons at the site, Dhavlikar replied in the negative when asked if the State government had issued any order for the demolition of the adjacent building which has been declared unsafe.
“What is the need to demolish these buildings now? Why (should we) help the builders by demolishing the buildings which are already declared unsafe? After all, electricity and water supply has been cut off and the occupancy certificate has been revoked,” said Dhavlikar.
“There are heavy expenses involved in demolishing and clearing the debris of each of the buildings. So why should the government incur these expenses and help the builders? Who will occupy these unsafe buildings,” he asked.
Incidentally, authorities have encountered some difficulty in the transportation of bodies of workers to their native places.
According to sources, only three bodies have been airlifted to their native places so far and there were unconfirmed reports that airlines had reportedly declined to airlift the highly decomposed bodies of workers to their native states.
“That is the reason we have been constantly requesting the concerned to carry out the final rites of their near and dear ones right here in Goa. The State government will help and facilitate the arrival of family members to Goa to participate in the last rites,” said Dhavlikar.
