PM announces relief fund for kin of Meerut building collapse victims

Meerut: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday night sanctioned an ex-gratia relief fund for the 15-member family affected by the Meerut building collapse accident in Zakir Nagar colony on Saturday.
A one-page letter from Prime Minister's Office (PMO) read, "It is to be informed that the Prime Minister has sanctioned ex-gratia out of the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) at Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the persons deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the persons who were seriously injured after a building collapsed in Meerut, UP on Saturday."
Meerut DM Deepak Meena said, "The PMO has asked us to provide bank details of these victims, which we will comply with very soon." Apart from this, earlier a relief fund was announced to the family under a district compensation scheme.
Meena earlier shared details with TOI, "Under a compensation scheme, family members of the dead will receive Rs 4 lakh per person and an additional 1.2 lakh rupees will be given to the family for their collapsed house. The family refused to conduct post-mortems on two minors despite being informed that no compensation can be initiated without an autopsy."
On Thursday, delegations of Samajwadi Party (SP) reached Zakir Colony to handover a cheque of Rs 5 lakh, given by Akhilesh Yadav. The SP delegation alleged that relief fund given by the govt is insufficient, and the govt should give Rs 20 lakh per head to the next kin of the dead and injured. "SP Mahanagar president Adil Chaudhary also gave Rs 2 lakh, contributed by SP supporters in Meerut," said Vipin Chaudhary, SP district president.
Notably, ten persons of a family died after their fragile three-storey house collapsed following incessant rain. Later, it turned out that rampant water flow beneath the house's foundation made the building fragile, leading to the disaster.