The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has suspended two engineers while the contract of another engineer terminated with immediate effect in connection with the residential building collapse in Sawan Park area in Ashok Vihar of North West Delhi, claiming seven innocent lives.
A senior NMC official said Executive Engineer Rajesh Sharma, Assistant Engineer Abhay Jain and Junior Engineer Kapil Yadav (Contractual employee), posted in Keshav Puram zone have been placed under suspension.
The letter issued by the Vigilance Department of the corporation also stated that both the permanent engineers will keep receiving subsistence allowances during suspension period as admissible by rules.
Earlier on Wednesday, residents of Ashok Vihar where the incident happened claimed that the deaths of innocent are a result of callous apathy of the civic agencies. "These lives could have been saved had the authorities acted on the complaint that was lodged with them on August 16, 2017,” they said.
Though North Corporation officials visited the area only three weeks ago and did make a report about the structure that was struggling to hold up but did nothing and tragedy struck the innocent commoners, said a resident. "Building owner didn't listen to complaints about its poor condition, and neither the civic agency officials," said victims' kin.
As per the latest survey of all the three civic agencies is to believe, there is not even a single building that has been marked "dangerous" under South and East Corporations. However, North Corporation identified 118 houses that are on the verge of collapse and as declared them dangerous. Ironically the building collapsed on Wednesday was not declared dangerous by the NMC.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) claimed there are no dangerous buildings in their jurisdiction. The civic body claimed to have surveyed 93, 8,353 houses out of the total 10.13 lakh and found zero structures in dilapidated conditions.
A senior SDMC official said engineers inspect the buildings and notices are issued to the owners in case of structures found bent or developing cracks. A senior North civic agency official said there are 7,23,295 buildings in its area and in which 6,06,514 buildings were surveyed.