A 30-year-old woman and her friend suffered injuries after they fell from a ride at Dussehra ground in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri area on Monday night. The ride has been sealed by the police and the injured have been admitted to RML hospital. Over the last years, Delhi has seen multiple such accidents.
Licences and fitness certificates for these rides are issued by the district magistrate’s (DM) office after obtaining no-objection certificates (NOCs) from various agencies, including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The MCD’s little known Electrical and Mechanical (E&M) department issues fitness certificates for the rides. “These licences are issued with clear conditions that the rides must be maintained and checked by the operators and management. A second municipal official admitted that the regulations are not updating and keeping pace with increasingly complex rides. The frequency with which prescribed sandbag load tests are conducted has also emerged as a concern. Delhi-NCR has witnessed several mechanical failures and glitches involving fairground rides in recent years, resulting in deaths, injuries and rescue operations. Such incidents have often led Delhi Police to register cases over alleged negligence in the handling of machinery and acts endangering public safety.
However, MCD officials said the corporation places the responsibility for maintenance and any accident or malfunction on the ride owners. In the event of an accident, the liability lies with the owners,” an MCD official said.
