Delhi: Rains won’t bring house down, or so claim corporations

NEW DELHI: There are just 49 “dangerous” buildings in the city — if you believe the data collected by the civic agencies as part of their annual survey of structurally precarious buildings for 2019. The east and south municipal corporations claimed to have completed 100% and 98% of their surveys, respectively, the deadline for which expired on June 30, and found not even a single building dangerous or dilapidated.

Only the north corporation, which has completed 94% of its survey, declared 49 buildings as dangerous. It also isued notices to 88 houses for immediate repair.
The figures have, however, failed to impress the local councillors in north Delhi. Expressing concern at the procedure of conducting the surveys, leader of House Tilak Raj Kataria said that in the backdrop of several incidents of building collapses, all precautionary measures needed to be taken to avoid a repeat with the monsoon round the corner. Ravinder Bhardwaj, AAP councillor and member of the standing committee, claimed he had not seen any official in the past three months carrying out a survey and that the report was an eyewash.
Former mayor and BJP councillor Adesh Gupta said a detailed survey was required to ensure that the owner actually repaired the building or demolished the dangerous portions. “At the same time, it also needs to be ensured that people don’t misuse the exercise by themselves declaring the building dangerous just to get rid of tenants,” he said.
To this, a senior north corporation official said that the building department had issued 15-day notices under Section 348 of DMC Act to the 49 buildings for immediately demolishing their dangerous portions. “If nothing happens, we will give them three days to vacate the structure and do the needful. Else, we will take appropriate action according to the norms,” he said.
North corporation commissioner Varsha Joshi said the department was taking its job seriously. “There is no scope for manipulation in the report as the exercise is done at a mass level and in all zones simultaneously. We are serious about the Old Delhi areas and have already formed a dangerous cell in the City-Sadar Paharganj zone. Similarly in Karol Bagh, four-to-five new officials have been given a similar task,” she said.