NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae on Wednesday filed a report before the top court on the building collapse in Satya Niketan and requested the apex court to direct its appointed committee to carry out inspections and safety audits of all PG accommodations, private hostels and similar student-accommodation establishments situated in and around colleges and universities across Delhi.Senior advocate Ajit Kumar Sinha, in his report, said that the Satya Niketan incident assumes significance as the locality had witnessed another building collapse in April 2022, in which two people were killed and four injured.“The present incident is also required to be viewed in the context of an earlier building collapse in Satya Niketan in April 2022, in which two persons lost their lives, and four others were injured. The recurrence of such an incident in the same locality raises serious concerns regarding the effectiveness of the existing mechanism for inspection, identification of dangerous structures, and enforcement of building bye-laws”, the amicus report said.He also noted that construction-related work was being undertaken in or around the basement and that there were reports of waterlogging in the basement immediately before the latest collapse.The amicus has sought a time-bound inspection and safety audit of PGs, private hostels and similar student-accommodation establishments around colleges and universities across Delhi, including checks on sanctioned building plans, actual construction and number of floors, basement construction and alterations, land use, structural and fire safety, ingress and egress, and dangerous or ruinous conditions.
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This comes after seven people were killed when a building collapsed in Satya Niketan on Sunday.Meanwhile, Municipal Corporation of Delhi also directed its executive engineers (building) across all zones to inspect structures under their jurisdiction and submit comprehensive reports by September 10, following the deadly building collapse in south Delhi’s Satya Niketan, which killed seven people, officials said.Officials said the information collected during the inspections would be incorporated into an affidavit to be filed before the Delhi High Court within 10 days.The inspections and submission of reports will be personally monitored and supervised by the additional commissioners concerned in each zone, according to the order, they added.
