After 6 Die In Satya Niketan Collapse, MCD Gives Owner 3 Days To Demolish Building
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has ordered the demolition of another building in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan, days after a five-storey structure collapsed in the area, killing six people and injuring several others.
The civic body has given the owner or occupier of property number 13 three days to bring down the structure, which officials have declared to be in a “ruinous and dangerous condition”.
The order, issued on September 6 by the MCD’s South Zone, warned that the building posed a potential threat to residents, visitors, passersby and neighbouring properties. It was issued under Section 348 read with Section 491 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.
The MCD said that if the owner or occupier failed to carry out the demolition within the stipulated three-day period, the civic body would undertake the demolition itself and recover the expenses from the owner as arrears of tax.
The move comes a day after a decades-old G+4 building housing a boys’ hostel collapsed in Satya Niketan. The disaster claimed six lives and left several people injured, prompting renewed scrutiny of the condition and construction of buildings in the locality.
The collapsed structure was identified as property number 14, the MCD said.
The civic body had also earlier evacuated occupants from a nearby building housing a girls’ paying guest accommodation after declaring it dilapidated. The tenants were shifted to a nearby community hall, while the MCD announced plans to demolish the structure.
According to MCD officials, the collapsed building stood on roughly 55 square yards in a resettlement colony where permission had originally been granted only for a G+1 structure. No approved building plan was available for the construction, officials said.
The latest demolition order highlights growing concerns over structurally unsafe and unauthorised buildings in densely populated parts of Delhi, particularly after the fatal Satya Niketan collapse.