The tragic death of six people in Sawan Park area in Ashok Vihar of North West Delhi in a building collapse is not surprising, as the national Capital has been witness to such tragedies at regular intervals. This is a never ending story as yet another building caved in on Wednesday, only to expose the callous neglect 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. As officials of North Corporation failed to act and that resulted in the loss of six innocent lives.
The incident has one again brought into focus the functioning of clueless and directionless municipal corporations. “Netas come and shed tears, announce compensations but nothing happens on the ground. So what if six lives were lost, people will forget it after sometime and things will be back to square one” said a local, who did not want to be named.
Residents claimed that the complaint regarding the building was made on August 16, 2017 as it had started to tilt dangerously. Though North Corporation officials visited the area only three weeks back 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 ageny officials,” said victims’ kin.
If the building survived so many months, it was because of a sesame tree that provided support to the structure. Interestingly, in a survey conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC), 181 buildings were found dangerous in its area but none of the building marked as “dangerous” in Keshav Puram zone in which the area come.
However, a senior north corporation official said that the building department has not received any application or complaints regarding the condition of building till date. “The building was about 20 years old. Its structure was weak and remained in a dilapidated condition, the official added.
In a statement issued by the civic body it said that man and machinery were immediately dispatched after the incident came in light for rescue operation and removal of malba. “Neither any new construction activity noticed nor any building material found stacked at the site,” had it said.
The civic body had surveyed 7, 23,295 buildings and found 181 building in dilapidated condition but not even a single building battered. According to survey report of all the three civic agencies, the highest numbers of dangerous buildings were found in the Narela Zone and the figure stood at 111.
According to locals, the building was 12-15 years old and was in depilated shape for last two years. “Inderjeet, a local resident in the colony had lodged a complaint about the building being dangerous on August 16, 2017 and a team of MCD had inspected the building around 15 days ago. The wall of house had bent over and was in support of a tree in front of house. If tree wasn't there the wall would have collapsed a long ago,” said Suresh Kumar, a resident of the colony.
“The ground floor of the building housed a shop while the second to fourth floors were occupied by tenants whereas first floor was vacated after the inspection by local municipal authorities,” Kumar said.
“The incident occurred around 9 am. Till the police and fire official arrived we have extracted 8 people from the house debris,” said Rajiv, a local resident.
“We will blame local authorities for the incident who are in cahoots with such house owner. Umesh had paid rent two days ago. Noticing the condition of the house, Umesh was willing to shift but house owner assured him of safety so he didn't move. Why the authorities didn't seal the building when they had come for inspection? Who will compensate the loss?” said Harender, who lives in the same lance.
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.