Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced on Tuesday that the building next to the PG lodging in Delhi's Satya Niketan neighborhood, which collapsed and killed seven people, will be razed tomorrow after city officials determined it to be hazardous.
Gupta further said that the Delhi government would cover all of the medical expenses for those hurt in the building fall and offered Rs 5 lakh in financial assistance. She visited the injured earlier in the day and gave their family checks at the AIIMS Trauma Center.
Around 1:30 pm on Sunday, the decades-old structure that housed Hostel Daze, a boys' PG, collapsed in Satya Niketan, killing seven persons. The property, which was roughly 55 square meters in size, had four stories above ground, a basement, and was undergoing repairs.
As a precaution, many iron guardrails have been placed across the front, rear, and center of the adjacent structure, which survived the fall.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation inspected the building and determined that it was hazardous. The owner received a notification from the civic body stating that the property was in a "ruinous, dangerous condition" and that anyone who lived there, used it, or passed by it could be in risk.
The owner was given three days to demolish the structure by the notice dated September 6, the day of the collapse. If the order wasn't obeyed, the MCD threatened to do the demolition itself and recoup the expenses as tax arrears.
The building will be removed in a "calibrated, phase-wise manner" to reduce future risk, according to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. The neighborhood's buildings are crammed together like sardines since it is close to Delhi University's South Campus campuses and offers affordable living alternatives, making it a popular destination for students.
Officials suspended, PG owners arrested
In the meantime, the PG owners were taken into custody by Delhi Police in relation to the building collapse. Hariram Gupta, an 81-year-old former Indian Air Force sergeant from Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, was arrested on Monday. On the same day, his wife Urmila Gupta (75) and their son Mahesh Gupta (52) were taken into custody.
Documents later revealed that Urmila was the building's owner, despite the police's initial identification of Hariram as the owner. The PG was supposedly run by Mahesh and Hariram.
Due to the incident, the MCD has also suspended five officials, including four engineers and South Zone Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kumar.
The civic council ordered examinations of buildings throughout Delhi after the fall, particularly those that might have violated floor and height regulations. Gupta has also ordered the city's five-story buildings to be sealed.
A high-level MCD investigation into the collapse has been mandated by the Delhi High Court, which called the tragedy "most unfortunate" and stated that the government cannot avoid accountability.
