Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 7: As the death toll in the collapse of the students’ paying guest building in Satya Niketan locality in Delhi reached 7, most of them students, on Monday after 12 persons were rescued from the Debris, the Delhi police have arrested the owner of the building Hariram Bansal, his son Mahesh and wife Urmilla on charges of culpable homicide, negligence in upkeep of a structure, and endangering safety of others, at the South Campus Police Station.
Bansal was reportedly apprehended from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. Further examination was in progress, officials said.
The Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta ordered the suspension of the Delhi municipal corporation officials responsible for supervision of the dilapidated buildings and their proper maintenance while the Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to Centre, Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi University (DU), seeking their separate response over the numbers of students who live in such PGs across the capital.
According to an official release, the suspended officials include personnel from different levels of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), including Rakesh Kumar: Deputy Commissioner, South Zone, Ranveer Singh: Superintending Engineer, South Zone, Lalit Kumar Goyal: Executive Engineer, South Zone and Sunil Chauhan: Assistant Engineer, South Zone, and Ashish Kumar, a junior engineer. The action comes amid growing questions over construction and safety violations surrounding the collapsed building.
The suspension orders were issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vigilance Department on the directions of the civic body’s commissioner under the DMC Services (Control and Appeal) Regulations, 1959. The officials have been placed under suspension with immediate effect under Regulation 5(2), the orders said. They will be entitled to subsistence allowance as admissible under the rules. The suspension orders were signed by Deputy Law Officer (Vigilance) Nand Kishore.
A total of 12 people were rescued so far from the debris of the five-storey building after one more person was found alive under the debris on Monday morning while one was found dead taking the death toll to seven.
Multiple agencies, including the Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force and Delhi Disaster Management Authority, have been carrying out rescue operations through the night. The building housed a boys’ paying guest (PG) accommodation named Hostel Daze near Delhi University’s South Campus. Locals said the building, which comprises a basement plus five more floors, was at least 50 years old.
The Delhi government also ordered a magisterial probe into the building collapse. “Following an on-site review and based on the preliminary assessment, Chief Minister has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and FIR against the building owner,” the Delhi CMO had said in a post on X. The Chief Minister, who also met the injured at AIIMS, vowed strict punishment for the guilty, while her office said the government was in touch with the families of the injured students and is providing them the necessary support.
The Delhi High Court has also ordered a high-level investigation into the collapse, and observed that hostel facilities for students coming from outside the city are in a “pathetic condition.”
The Division Bench of the High Court that included Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia also questioning the Delhi government and said such incidents cannot happen in the national capital every second year, directing authorities to “double down” their efforts in rescuing those who are still trapped under the rubble. The court also asked the DU as to how many students who take admission were provided with hostel facilities.
The building collapsed around 1.30 pm on Sunday while repair work was underway. Rescue operations continue at the site of the incident. The collapse has already triggered administrative action, with Delhi CM Rekha Gupta announcing a new policy mandating structural audits for all buildings used for public purposes, including PGs.
The Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Monday asked college principals to review residential facilities for students and expedite ongoing hostel projects following the collapse of a multi-storey paying guest (PG) accommodation. Mr Singh convened a meeting of college principals to discuss the incident and observed a two-minute silence in memory of the deceased.
The VC said the loss of students’ lives was a “massive blow” to the university and assured the affected families that the university stood ready to provide all possible assistance. He urged principals to explore the feasibility of constructing new hostels, assess available space and government schemes and prepare plans wherever possible.
The Delhi High Court said the building-collapse incident was “most unfortunate.” The court said not only are the building owners 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. 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 were being taken to rescue those trapped under the debris.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said her government was drafting a policy under which the owners of old buildings would have to submit structural audit reports and certify their safety before they can be used to accommodate paying guests or as nursing homes, schools and other commercial establishments.
The announcement came after the collapse of a building housing a PG in south Delhi’s Satya Niketan. But records show that attempts to regulate paying-guest accommodation in Delhi go back to at least 1993, followed over the years by fresh schemes, surveys, committees and proposals for registration and licensing.
A 2006 Delhi High Court judgment records that a “Paying Guest Residential Accommodation” scheme framed by the Centre was already in operation in the capital in 1993.
The MCD, meanwhile, has given the owner of another dilapidated building in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan three days to demolish the structure after it was found to be in a “ruinous and dangerous condition,” following the deaths caused by the building collapse. On September 6, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) issued an order for property no 13 in Satya Niketan, directing the owner or occupier to tear down the structure, citing that it posed a threat to residents, visitors, passers-by, and neighbouring buildings.
The collapsed building was property no 14, according to an MCD statement. The notice was issued under Section 348 read with Section 491 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, by the Executive Engineer (Building)-I of the MCD’s South Zone. In the order, the MCD stated, “It would demolish the building if the owner or occupier failed to do so within three days of receiving the order and recover the cost from the owner as arrears of tax.”
Investigations reveal that the students compelled to stay in PGs because of the shortage of hostel facilities in the University and the colleges were forced to sign almost one-sided agreements with the owners of the building who shirk any responsibility for the upkeep and safety of the tenants staying in the dilapidated buildings. The tenants are charged at least three months’ security deposit, one month’s advance rent and zero liability for the hostel if anything goes wrong, as per the rent-agreements signed by those staying in the now collapsed building. “The PG authorities are not responsible against any casualties or risk to me (student),” a line buried deep in the agreement’s fine print reads.
When one reads the document, it becomes impossible to ignore how one-sided the paperwork for renting out student accommodation in Delhi really is. Students hand over months of rent and security deposits upfront. In return, they get an agreement that appears to absolve the hostel of responsibility for their safety, even as it holds them to strict, non-negotiable terms on nearly everything else.
The rent agreement for Hostel Daze lists out the tenant’s obligations in detail. It requires payment of three months’ security along with one month’s advance rent, states that the security deposit will not be refunded under any circumstances before the agreement period ends, and warns that any damage to furniture or fixtures will be deducted from that deposit.
It also bars students from sticking posters or stickers on the walls, and states that if a student leaves before their agreed period is up, for any reason, including expulsion on disciplinary grounds, no refund of hostel fees or security money will be given.
A separate terms and conditions document tied to the same hostel states that in case of “personal injury suffered/loss/damage of personal belongings of the tenant due to reasons beyond the control of the P.G. vice sealing/fire/earthquake/heavy rains/other natural calamities etc., the hostel will not be liable for paying any compensation.” It also gives hostel management the right to change a student’s room or hostel location whenever “circumstances” require it, and to evict any student immediately for disciplinary issues, with no refund.
The nearly 50 years old collapsed building stood on around 55 square yards of land in a resettlement colony where permission had only ever been granted for a two-storey structure, according to a senior MCD official, and no building plan had been approved.
A few months ago, the building was in a dilapidated state, worn down by age and neglect. Its location, close to Delhi University, where thousands of students from across the country come to study, made it a valuable opportunity. The owner, Hariram Bansal, spent several months renovating the structure, and in August this year, the building began taking in tenants, most of them students, across around 30 rooms meant to house two to three students each.
However, construction work was reportedly still incomplete when the building collapsed. Labourers were working in the basement at the time, and two of the eleven people rescued were labourers, one of whom died in the incident. Notably, the building was residential, not meant for commercial use such as running a paying-guest hostel, raising further questions about how it came to house dozens of students in the first place.
A day after the five-storey building collapsed in Satya Niketan, the Aam Aadmi Party said on Monday that several BJP leaders own properties in the area, which explains the lack of past action. The AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that several BJP leaders own PG properties, which explains the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD’s) inaction in the area.
“Since Sunday, people are saying on social media that BJP leaders own properties; there is a loot happening in the name of the PG, the MCD is not acting, the reason is, many big leaders have properties here. Our demand to Rekha Gupta is to make public the names of people having properties here; there is a ‘PG mafia’, ‘PG syndicate’ running here,” Mr Bharadwaj told reporters.
The Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose also attacked the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Delhi over the Satya Niketan building tragedy, alleging a “total collapse” of everyday governance in the national capital. “No city exemplifies the total collapse of everyday governance more starkly than New Delhi — ruled by the BJP’s ‘triple engine’ — the MCD, state and Centre,” Ms Ghose, a Rajya Sabha MP, said on X.
“Deadly fires, overflowing streets, everyday heinous crimes against women. And now, the shocking collapse of a college hostel building, tragically claiming the lives of young students and leaving others critically injured,” she said. Ghose alleged that the government was suffering from a “fatal failure” and “simply unable to govern.”
In a scathing attack against the BJP over the Satya Niketan PG building collapse, the Congress on Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “PR balloon” had been deflated and termed the “four engine government” in Delhi a killing machine, claiming the lives of students. A day after the five-storey building collapsed, the opposition party demanded that action be taken against all those responsible. It also demanded that affordable accommodation be provided to students, a rent control act be brought for hostels and PGs and ₹1 crore compensation be given to the family of those who have lost their lives.
Addressing a press conference along with NSUI president Vinod Jakhar, Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar said it is unfortunate that there is no clarity even after 24 hours and the debris has not yet been fully cleared. “There is no information on how many people are still trapped under the debris. The PG had 45 beds, it was Sunday, what if all the students were there? There were labourers working in the basement and students sit on the buildings steps as well. The police administration present there is not only failing to carry out relief and rescue operations properly, but is also engaged in the task of hiding the truth,” the NSUI in-charge said.