After the multi-storey building of a boys’ PG hostel collapsed in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, one of the students staying in the co-living space recounted the state of the building before the tragedy.
The walls were cracking. The basement used to fill with water. Food was bad. There were two rooms on each floor. Delhi minister Kapil Mishra also arrived at the spot to review the situation.
Nitin Jamwal, 19, whose friend is feared trapped following the building’s collapse, said the walls of the structure had started “cracking”. Jamwal, who was residing in the PG till about a year ago, said, “Everything here was bad here. Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta, who visited the spot of the incident in south west Delhi, said rescue and emergency operations were being conducted “on war footing” at the site. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force ( NDRF ), Delhi Fire Services, Delhi Police, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), MCD, Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS), and Civil Defence were deployed at the site, the chief minister said. “Every possible effort is being made to safely rescue those trapped and provide immediate assistance to affected families,” Gupta said, adding that an adjacent building had been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The Delhi CM further directed all concerned agencies to “maintain close coordination and ensure a swift response”, she said in a post on X. Locals recalled a “sudden tremor” which made them rush out of their homes, following which they saw the building collapsed. Speaking about the PG, Rajen Chhetri, a local who works in the Delhi Police, said, “Most of the students staying here are from Keralam, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and study mainly at Motilal Nehru College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College and Sri Venkateswara College.”
