The collapse of a building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, which killed at least seven people, had all the markings of a tragedy foretold – a familiar detail being that the building, functioning as a paying-guest facility, was an unauthorised construction with poor safety systems. It has been reported that the building was originally sanctioned as a ground-plus-one structure but was expanded with additional floors without the necessary permissions. This collapse extends a series of incidents involving unsafe and unauthorised buildings, illegal alterations and extensions, commercial misuse of residential properties, and abject failure of regulatory supervision. Four years ago, Satya Niketan witnessed a three-storey building collapse while under renovation, killing two people. Sunday’s tragedy also exposes a culture of exploitation in areas near universities and educational institutions, where students are forced to live in unsafe conditions.
Delhi, one of India’s major educational centres, has consistently failed to provide safe and affordable accommodation for the thousands of students who land in the city every year to pursue opportunity and a better life. Similar incidents and fire tragedies have occurred in other areas of the city, including Vivek Vihar and Malviya Nagar, each exposing abysmal enforcement and entrenched corruption. The costs are irreversible.
The Delhi High Court said that apart from the owner of the paying-guest facility, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which erred as an enforcement agency, and the Delhi University (DU), which failed to provide adequate housing facilities to its outstation students, were responsible for the tragedy. The High Court has directed the MCD to conduct an executive-level inquiry. A case has been registered, officials suspended, and the owner of the building arrested. However, legal proceedings typically drag on for years, and the suspended officials, if history is any indication, are likely to rejoin service. Real, systemic accountability is rarely fixed. N This causes preventable incidents to recur. Even with a ‘triple-engine sarkar’ at the helm, Delhi has suffered because of poor administrative oversight. It has struggled under the weight of its expansion, facilitated by rampant violation of building rules.
However, this pattern of negligence is not limited to the national capital. India’s cities are increasingly witnessing the rise of illegal constructions and unsafe paying-guest facilities. Building collapses are one fallout of unchecked urban sprawl. Given this backdrop, the Supreme Court’s proposal for pan-India safety audits of all paying-guest and student accommodations is a crucial and necessary intervention. It should lead to clearer, universal compliance mechanisms and certain punishment for corrupt officials. (Source: DH)
