In monsoon season, the national Capital witnesses collapse of several buildings claiming innocent lives every year. But if 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 has identified 118 houses that are on the verge of collapse and has declared them dangerous.
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.
According to survey report of all the three civic agencies, the highest number of dangerous buildings were found in the Narela Zone and the figure stood at 111.
“We have found four buildings in dilapidated condition in Karol Bagh zone, two in Rohini zone and one in city zone, while the figure is zero in Civil line zone, a senior official said.
The official also said the concerned zonal officials of the respective zones have already issued notices to owners of the buildings and subsequent action will be taken. He also pointed out that some of the portions of the buildings have been demolished and further notices are being served to the owners of the buildings to vacate the properties.
Also, he said in one particular case, the front side of the building was demolished completely with the help of police and notice was issued to the owner to vacate the property for further action in Rohini.
“Accordingly, with a view to preclude any accident, Section 348 and 349 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957 has been invoked in respect of these buildings in Narela zone, and vacation notices under Section 349 of the Act have been issued to the owners/occupiers of such dangerous buildings.
There are 118 number of battered building found in this zone. In some cases, owners demolished their houses by their own,” he said.
As Delhi is among 30 cities in the country falling in Zone IV, which is a severe intensity seismic zone and that can cause havoc, the number of buildings that are in dilapidated state should be checked properly, leaders of Opposition party said. Recently, at a meeting leader of Opposition in the House Praveen Kumar termed the survey fake.
It may be recalled that in a tragic incident, a four-storey building in lalita Park (East Delhi) collapsed killing 67 people In November 2010. The illegally constructed building had collapsed during rain and a lot of hue and cry was raised since 67 people had lost their lives. In similar incident, a building collapsed in Chandni Mahal, killing seven persons in September 2011. “However, once the dust settled on these tragic incidents, things were back to square one and unauthorised constructions have become the order of the day” said an official pleading anonymity.