New Delhi: Squarely blaming the BJP-ruled MCD
for the 2010 Lalita Park building collapse in which 70 people
died, an inquiry appointed by Delhi government has castigated
the civic body for "miserably failing" in finding out the
existence of the unauthorised structure for several years.
The Commission of Inquiry headed by retired Justice
Lokeshwar Prasad also took a dig at the Delhi Development
Authority (DDA) for its failure in preventing the owner of the
building from adding several floors to the unauthorised
structure.
Seventy people, mostly migrants from Bihar and West
Bengal, were killed in the building collapse that took place
on November 15, 2010 in Lalita Park locality in East Delhi.
Several floors were added in an unauthorised manner to the
structure which came crashing down like a pack of cards due to
accumulation of water in the ground floor.
Since the owner, Amrit Singh, began construction on the
land in 1988 in Lalita Park, when the area was already with
MCD, the regulation of building activities was the
responsibility of the civic body and its functionaries, the
CoI said in its report, which was tabled in the Delhi Assembly
on Wednesday.
Blaming the Building and Tax Departments of the MCD for
their failure in concluding that the building was unauthorised
construction, the report said, "All these departments of MCD
have miserably failed in discharging their statutory duty on
their own, independently much so less in co-ordination with
each other."
It said even if one department had done its duty by being
vigilant and bringing the real facts to the fore, the
"unfortunate building" would not have been constructed in a
"haphazard manner".
"The Commission is at a loss to understand as to the
purpose of having such a huge department with mammoth
workforce, empowered with statutory arsenal, if an individual
can still have his way in blatant violation of law," it said.
Pulling up the DDA for not co-operating with it by giving
required details and reports, the Commission concluded that
the responsibility of the DDA is no less than that of the MCD
for the collapse of the building.
PTI
