Toll up at 9 as Last Body Recovered
Pune: Rescue teams recovered the body of the last missing person from the Moshi waste processing unit that collapsed near Pune in the early hours of Sunday, taking the death toll in the tragedy to nine, officials said.
Meanwhile, a senior official from the waste processing plant described the July 8 incident as “an act of God”.
The three-storey administrative building of the Waste to Energy (WTE) plant run by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation at Moshi in Pune district collapsed after the adjoining pile of garbage fell on the structure like a landslide.
The body of the last missing person, Waman Kasbe, was pulled from the rubble early Sunday, bringing the death toll to nine, while 14 people were rescued, officials said.
The search operation was later canceled.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the families of the victims on Saturday evening, Mahendra Ananthula, Group Chairman of Antony Waste Group, expressed his sorrow for the loss of life, saying that the dead and injured were “part of our family”.
“This was like God’s will, a natural disaster… Somehow we could not predict this, no one can. It was not possible to predict the amount of rainfall in the last 4-5 days. Similar events took place in different parts of the country last week.”
The company will cover all medical expenses of those injured in the incident, the official said.
He also announced a compensation package of Rs 25 lakh to the families of each deceased victim through the company’s contribution and insurance policy.
He also said the company would offer full-time employment to an immediate family member of each deceased and cover educational expenses for their minor children.
