Delhi home minister Ashish Sood on Friday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the October 7 Seemapuri building collapse that claimed four lives and directed the district magistrate (northeast) to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident and fix accountability.
Following the fire, the government launched a citywide inspection drive involving district administrations, the police, the MCD, and the fire service to identify illegal and unsafe buildings. However, HT subsequently reported that the exercise lost momentum after about a month, with district-level teams flagging violations but lacking powers to seal properties. “No guilty person or lax official will be spared. Preliminary local inquiries have indicated that demolition work with heavy machinery at an adjoining unauthorised construction site may have triggered the collapse through vibrations. The incident has once again brought the safety of densely packed residential structures in the national capital under scrutiny. The inquiry exposed how inspections often failed to translate into sustained enforcement. The inquiry found that a Delhi Fire Services aerial platform was obstructed by illegal overhead cables and that there was no effective backup arrangement when the equipment failed. It also flagged inadequate training of personnel operating sophisticated equipment and manpower shortages in the fire service.
The March 18 Palam fire, which killed nine people, exposed shortcomings in emergency response. Our immediate priority is to support the affected families, and our long-term goal is to enforce strict structural safety rules so that such an accident never happens again in Delhi,” Sood said.
Officials said the inquiry will examine the exact cause of the collapse, violations of building laws and safety norms by property owners and private individuals, and possible lapses by government departments and civic agencies.
An HT review of magisterial inquiry reports into the Saidulajab building collapse and the fires in Hauz Rani, Palam and Vivek Vihar found that multiple agencies had overlooked warning signs before the tragedies.
