Dibrugarh: A 48-year-old woman, Salma Begum, died at Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) on Saturday, two days after a portion of an under-construction five-storey building collapsed on her house in Loharpatty. Begum was cooking in her kitchen when a large section of the building’s wall came crashing down on Thursday, leaving her critically injured. She was immediately rushed to AMCH, where she succumbed after two days of treatment.
Residents alleged that the building’s owner, Yunis Khan, had been constructing the structure illegally without approval from the Dibrugarh Municipal Corporation (DMC). They claimed that despite the extremely congested area, construction continued unchecked without basic safety measures, barricading or consideration for adjacent homes. Locals said falling debris from the site had become a regular threat, and Thursday’s collapse was “an accident waiting to happen.”
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Following the accident, the DMC and District Administration sealed the building and ordered its demolition, calling it a high-risk violation of safety and planning norms. Residents also accused a DMC engineer — previously linked to corruption allegations — of enabling the illegal construction. They demanded a high-level inquiry, questioning how a five-storey structure could rise without mandatory permissions or monitoring. The tragedy follows growing concerns about a surge in illegal constructions across the newly upgraded municipal corporation area.
