The residents of the dilapidated building have signed a letter to be given to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) claiming that they would continue to live there at their own risk. ``Since MHADA has refused any monetary help, we have decided to live in the building and carry out repairs with our own money,'' said the secretary of the society Gajanan Shirsat. He claimed that the repairs would start immediately with the Rs 1.75 lakh that they had in repair funds. ``The rest will be collected from the tenants... hopefully,'' he added.

After news of the collapse of a column at the rear portion of the building spread,the minister of state for housing Raj Purohit visited the society today morning with a posse of officials. The officials claimed the building was badly in need of repairs and asked the tenants to vacate the flats.

``The minister offered us accommodation in a transit camp near Vikhroli, but the residents refused to move out,'' said Sanjeev Kothawale. ``We have heard and read enough about the conditions at the transit camps, it is better for us to die here,'' he added.

Hemant Mishra, another resident of the building, felt that the collapse was an inevitable result of bad construction. ``In 1988 the building was repaired by a contractor under instructions from MHADA. But since the work was not up to the mark, the society refused to sign the construction bill. Yet the contractor managed to get the bill passed, and the repairs became official,'' he said.

Belligerent residents claim that they would continue to live in the building and repair it, come what may. ``We cannot leave this place, with the exams ofour kids approaching. And what about the aged, who are too old to walk?'' asked a furious Rajesh More.

Saner counsel is likely to prevail. M P Sachdev, a private consultant engaged by the residents, has warned that repairs needed to be done on a war footing. ``It is safer to vacate the flats before repairs are done, because very little has been left of the columns,'' he said.

When asked how long the repaired structure would last, he smiled, ``It all depends on the benevolence of the One above.'' If the benevolence does not last long, another Govind Towers tragedy is a real possibility.