LUCKNOW, Jan. 29 -- The rubble has long been cleared, but the ruins remain. Three years after the Alaya apartment building on Wazeer Hasan Road in the state capital collapsed in seconds, survivors are still picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. With loved ones gone, life savings buried, and promised compensation still out of reach, affected families continue to battle grief, mounting debt and bureaucratic indifference that has left them feeling abandoned.

The five-storey building collapsed on January 24, 2023, claiming three lives: Uzma Haider, 35, and Begum Haider, 75, wife and mother of Samajwadi Party spokesperson Abbas Haider, and Unnao-based teacher Shabana Khatun,42.

The fire department, police, SDRF and NDRF conducted d...