MCD, DU also responsible for building collapse tragedy: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Monday said the building-collapse incident at Satya Niketan in the National Capital that left several people dead and injured many others was most unfortunate. The court said not only the building owners are responsible for the tragedy, but also the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi University (DU), which has failed to provide adequate housing facilities to outstation students, who are forced to take shelter in private paying guest (PG) accommodation. A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia asked authorities to double up the efforts in the rescue operations so that human lives can be saved. 
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre, the Delhi government, the Delhi Police and the MCD in the matter, assured the court that all possible steps are being taken to rescue those trapped under the debris. He said the government is actively monitoring the situation. Mr Mehta assured the court that the authorities will take all decisions in the interest of everyone concerned and that no stone will be left unturned. 
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) matter relating to the building collapse. It asked the authorities to file their separate replies to the petition within 10 days and listed the matter for further hearing on 25th of this month. The plea was mentioned for an urgent hearing and the court allowed it to be listed today itself. The building at Satya Niketan, which housed a boys’ paying-guest accommodation near the Delhi University’s (DU) South Campus, collapsed on Sunday while repair work was underway.
The Delhi civic body on Monday suspended five officials. The suspended officials are: Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner (South Zone), Superintending Engineer Ranvir Singh, Executive Engineer (Building) Lalit Kumar Goel, Assistant Engineer (Building) Sunil Chauhan and Junior Engineer (Building) Ashish Kumar of the South Zone. The civic body has also ordered the immediate sealing of all illegal construction exceeding four floors,
"Unfortunately, we have lost seven lives. We think the building next to the collapsed building has weakened, and it was strengthened through the night. We will take it up for demolition in a calibrated manner in the next 1-2 days," MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar said.
Hariram Bansal, the owner of the collapsed Satya Niketan building, who was on the run was arrested Monday afternoon from Rajasthan's Bhiwadi, the Delhi Police said. Earlier in the day, Delhi Police had issued a lookout circular (LOC) against Gupta and obtained his passport details as part of efforts to trace him. The collapsed Satya Niketan structure was a ground-plus-five-storey building constructed on a plot measuring around 55 square yards in a resettlement colony where the original permission was only for a ground-plus-one structure.