Around 30 to 50 students are feared trapped beneath the debris of five-storey boys’ PG in south Delhi’s Satya Niketan area, with locals saying some are making phone calls for help. The building collapsed on Sunday afternoon while colleges are open, raising fears that many students may have been inside their rooms. Rescue teams rushed to the site and began searching through the rubble. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj and Mayor Pravesh Wahi were also present as efforts continued to locate those trapped.
Eyewitness: ‘Serious Situation’
An eyewitness said the building was being used entirely as a PG-hostel and housed students.
“Since colleges are open right now, they must have been inside,” the eyewitness said, adding that the area below the building had vegetable stalls, pushcarts, parked vehicles and people moving around.
The witness described the situation as extremely serious and said the full extent of casualties would only be known after the debris had been completely cleared.
According to the eyewitness, rescue teams arrived shortly after the collapse and began operations at the site.
The reports of students calling for help from beneath the rubble have heightened concerns over the number of people still trapped inside.
AAP Raises MCD Questions
AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj meanwhile questioned the functioning of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), citing an earlier building collapse in Saket involving a student PG.
Bharadwaj alleged that an illegal four-storey structure had been used as a PG and that an illegal basement was later being constructed when the building collapsed, resulting in the deaths of children.
He questioned why stronger action had not been taken against senior officials, claiming that only an assistant engineer and a junior engineer were suspended as a “mere formality”.
Bharadwaj also alleged widespread corruption in the MCD’s building department, claiming that Rs 1.25 crore was being paid as a bribe for the transfer of an executive engineer.
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