Toll goes up to 10

Indore: The death toll in the last night's hotel collapse here rose to 10 with six more people succumbing to injuries, even as the district administration ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

While eyewitnesses claimed that a car crashed into a pillar of the 60-year-old hotel building, following which it collapsed, the civic authorities said such a possibility could not be ruled out as of now and a detailed probe was being conducted into it.

The Madhya Pradesh government announced a compensation for the kin of the deceased, and the injured people.

The three-storey hotel-cum-lodge, located near the Sarvate Bus Stand in a congested commercial area, came crashing down around 10 pm yesterday, Choti Gwaltoli police station in-charge Sanju Kamle said. "We rushed 12 people to the government Maharaja Yashwantrao (MY) hospital. Doctors there declared 10 dead since last night," he said, adding that two women were among the deceased.

Two persons, who were injured in the incident, were being treated at the MY Hospital.

Kamle said the hotel building, having around 15 rooms, was nearly 60 years old and in a dilapidated condition from inside.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed grief over the death of people in the incident. He announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to those injured in the mishap, an official of the Public Relations Department said. The government will also bear the expenses of the injured people, the official said.

Indore Municipal Corporation commissioner Manish Singh was asked why the building was not declared as dangerous and no steps

taken to evacuate the premises in time.

To this, Singh said, "The hotel building was old. Its construction technique was also old. But its owner had tried to make it look spic and span by keeping it well painted and decorated from outside."

"It has come to light that some repair work was going on inside the building for the last few days and that just before the mishap, a wall of the building collapsed following which the entire structure came crashing down," he said.