- 3 weeks ago
Seven people lost their lives after a paying guest accommodation collapsed in south Delhi's Satya Niketan, prompting the suspension of five Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials, including a deputy commissioner and multiple engineers.
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00:00Good evening, you're watching NewsTrack with me, Maria Shaquille.
00:04Seven lives have been lost in Satyaniketan building collapse.
00:08And amidst the chorus for justice, the first layer of action is visible.
00:13The people accused of running the property are in custody and five MCD officials have been suspended.
00:20Rakesh Kubar, the Deputy Commissioner, Ranveer Singh, the superintending engineer,
00:28Lalit Kumar, the Executive Engineer, Sunil Chauhan, the Assistant Engineer,
00:33and Ashish Kumar, the Junior Engineer.
00:36But there is a missing name, MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar.
00:44His name is missing, MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar,
00:48whose civic body issued the permissions, ran the inspections,
00:54and looked away for decades, while a 40- to 50-year-old structure sprouted an illegal fifth floor above
01:03a congested lane.
01:05Even the elected representative of the area BJP, Emily Anil Sharma's name, is missing.
01:11So tonight I want to ask the questions that go beyond five suspensions.
01:17Five officers have been suspended, but where is the accountability?
01:22At the top.
01:24Is suspension punishment or a firewall?
01:28Sanjeev Khirwar, remember, is the same IS officer who was transferred out of Delhi in 2022 amidst allegations of dereliction
01:36of duty.
01:37Why was he brought back to head the very civic body responsible for structural safety?
01:44The High Court, remember, has said that the tragedy was preventable if statutory duties had been discharged.
01:51So whose duty failed, the junior engineers or the commissioners?
01:57How many more paying guest buildings in South Delhi have never undergone a structural audit?
02:07Why did it take seven deaths to order those audits?
02:11If a private landlord faces culpable homicide charges for negligence, why does the civic machinery face only suspension pending inquiry?
02:23And the larger question is India's steel frame.
02:27Remember, this is the steel frame of India.
02:29The IS officers, the bureaucracy are all part of the steel frame of India, the famous steel frame of India.
02:34India is that steel frame rusting from within because there is no accountability and citizens are not questioning because bureaucracy
02:46can move remarkably fast when it comes to transferring files from one desk to another.
02:51But when it comes to preventing a tragedy, the system can move painfully slow and that is evident.
02:59Seven people paid the ultimate price for that failure and the viewers, is the real collapse story we need to
03:08examine tonight.
03:09Before I bring in the guests, here's a report.
03:25It's a pattern we have seen before.
03:28Every tragedy follows the script.
03:31The government promises action.
03:40Then, there is a police hunt for the accused.
03:44Babus are suspended.
03:45Illegal structures are sealed.
03:48Bulldozers roll.
03:50Government calls it fixing accountability.
03:53But is it really?
04:03On Sunday, a boy's PG collapsed in Delhi, Satyana Ketan.
04:08Seven people died.
04:12Senior MCD officials from Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kumar to engineers Lalit Kumar Ranvi Singh, Sunil Chauhan and Ashish Kumar all
04:20just suspended.
04:22That's where the accountability trail stops.
04:25It has not reached MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Kherwar.
04:29The top official of the civic body responsible for permissions and inspections, even as a 40-50-year-old structure
04:38allegedly gained an illegal fifth floor in a densely packed lake.
04:43Remember, Sanjeev Kherwar is no stranger to controversy in Delhi.
04:49The 1994 batch IS officer was transferred out of the capital in 2022 after the Thyagraj Stadium Rao, when he
04:59was accused of using the stadium to walk his dog, allegedly forcing athletes and coaches to leave early.
05:06However, he has always denied the allegations.
05:10He returned to Delhi as MCD Commissioner in January this year.
05:14And now, after the Satyana Ketan collapse, his role is once again under scrutiny, with cause growing for his resignation.
05:25The accountability has not reached Anil Sharma, the BGP MLA from RK Poodham, the constituency that includes Satyana Ketan.
05:35He has been accused of turning a blind eye to a politically protected network of unsafe and unregulated student accommodation
05:42in the area.
05:44No FIR, no inquiry naming them.
05:48No questions asked.
05:50Seven people died in an instant, under a roof that collapsed onto them, in a building whose oversight was squarely
05:58the state's job.
06:00It was their job.
06:01And they failed to do it.
06:03So the question now is, who actually regulates the people who run these PGs?
06:09Because this is bigger than one collapsed building.
06:13Thousands of students need affordable housing in the national capital.
06:18Hostile capacity is nowhere near the demand.
06:21So families are pushed into private PGs, often in buildings, never designed to house so many people.
06:29Now we are going to the next 20-10-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20
06:31-20.
06:31We are not safe here.
06:32We are not going to go home, now we are going to go home.
06:36So we are not going to leave PGs yet.
07:13When regulation fails,
07:17when inspections fail,
07:19when illegal construction is allowed to grow,
07:22the bill is paid by the people living inside.
07:25Yes, there is an FIR.
07:28Yes, a court-monitored inquiry is underway.
07:31Yes, the Delhi LG has ordered safety audits
07:34and action against unauthorized floors.
07:37But accountability can't just end
07:39with a landlord and a handful of suspensions.
07:42Seven people are dead.
07:43And suspending officials may create
07:46the appearance of action,
07:47but it does not answer the most important questions.
07:52Who knew?
07:54Who failed to act?
07:55And who allowed this debt trap to exist in the first place?
08:01Because accountability can't stop at the people
08:04who owned the building.
08:05It has to reach every inspection,
08:08every permission,
08:10every warning that was ignored.
08:11Remember, there is difference between accountability
08:15and damage control.
08:18Bureau reports, India Today.
08:23Joining me first on the show is Dr. Kiran Bedi.
08:25Dr. Bedi, appreciate your time.
08:27The Delhi High Court had said that the MCD failed a statutory duty.
08:31Not just the junior engineers, the institution itself.
08:34In your experience,
08:36when a court fixes institutional responsibility like that,
08:41does accountability ever climb up to the commissioner's desk?
08:45Or does it stop at the engineer's level?
08:48No, no.
08:49It's the whoever is responsible for the running and management
08:52and leading the organization, which is the institution.
08:55Obviously, it is from top to bottom.
08:59But ma'am, two of the suspended officers were on duty
09:03during the Malviya Nagar incident also.
09:06You know, the fire incident which happened a month ago.
09:08And they got reposted in the same zone
09:12before Satya Niketan happened.
09:15As someone who has sat on the administrative side
09:19of postings and transfers,
09:20is there any mechanism in the system
09:23that actually tracks an officer's failure record
09:27before a transfer list is prepared?
09:32It all depends on the leadership.
09:35How seriously the leadership takes these deficiencies
09:40and the irregularities or the inadequacies or the events.
09:45It all depends on the leadership.
09:47And in this case, it is the commissioner.
09:49It has to be the commissioner.
09:51It has to be the commissioner.
09:52Because he's the administrative head.
09:56How he views the personnel, the postings and transfers are his.
10:04He's the one who posts, I believe.
10:07Unless the minister approves, etc.
10:09I do not know their policy.
10:11But I think the buck should stop there.
10:14Because the postings and transfers are the prerogative of the commissioner.
10:20Unless the policy is approval of the minister also.
10:24So then in that case, the minister also comes in.
10:27You've said something very important that the buck should stop with the MCD commissioner.
10:34And here is the commissioner.
10:36I'm looking at his track record.
10:38Who was shipped out of Delhi in 2022 for dereliction of duty.
10:42And then he is brought back.
10:44And then this incident happens.
10:46He certainly owes Delhi an apology.
10:48But he has stopped at suspension of officers.
10:52So I'm going to ask that question again.
10:54What do you think should happen here?
10:58Well, as I said, if it's a, if it's an, the high court has commented it as an inadequacy of
11:05the institution, then he is the head of the institution.
11:09Therefore, the buck stops with him, at him.
11:14So therefore, it's an institution and he's the executive head.
11:19So is the political minister, whoever is dealing with urban development.
11:25But directly, it is administrative head.
11:29Because personnel policies are with him.
11:34Okay.
11:35And his appointment, if he's come and that's been a political decision.
11:40Because his appointment has been political.
11:43Okay.
11:43He's been politically appointed.
11:45Dr. Kiranvedi, my last question.
11:47Do you think there is a need for revisiting the rule book,
11:50which actually decides what action should be taken against bureaucrats
11:56if under their supervision, incidents of this nature happen?
12:04But the rule book is very clear.
12:06It only depends on who is the, the next senior post who he's reporting to.
12:11The rule book is very clear.
12:12And it is the individual decision of the senior supervisor to who he or she is reporting to.
12:19The rule book is very clear.
12:22It is not the way the senior is perceiving a particular delinquency or irregularity or a misconduct.
12:31It is the view of the senior most, whoever it is.
12:36In this case, in one case, it could be the political minister, the political head.
12:40And in this, for the juniors, for the departmental, it is the police committee, sorry, the municipal commissioner.
12:48All right, Dr. Kiranvedi, I appreciate your time.
12:50Let me bring in Yashwar Dhan Azad, former special director, Intelligence Bureau.
12:56Yashwar sir, my question is that we have been talking about the steel frame of India, but what is visible
13:03is that it's rotten from within in multiple cases.
13:07And one such case is what we are seeing in the case of the MCD commissioner here.
13:14Usually when, you know, action is supposedly taken against any IAS officer, it is suspension pending inquiry.
13:23Do you think that's enough?
13:27Well, you know, in this particular case, it's a very, very serious case.
13:31And it is a kind of a repetition of these kinds of events which have been happening in the capital.
13:37So, yes, the man MCD commissioner should be actually responsible because you have placed already under suspension all the people
13:47of that particular area.
13:48But since he's the boss, he's accountable.
13:51So, even if you don't suspend him, definitely a charge sheet can be issued to him that how things are
13:57happening under his watch because he's the top man involved.
14:01And I'll tell you, in this particular case, unless you give the notice, a charge sheet to the commissioner or
14:09to the secretary of development, housing and development, and also question the minister, these things will never change.
14:20I'll tell you another thing, Maya, there are people, everyone knows, that it's the councillors who put the pressure on
14:28the junior engineers.
14:29Because even if they give the notice, they are there to defend all these PG owners.
14:35There are the MPs.
14:36So, the whole system needs to be looked into in the capital.
14:41Yeah, that's why I'm saying, if we are saying that the entire system needs to be looked into, then would
14:46you say that even the rule book, the service book has to be looked into?
14:50The reason why I'm saying is that the maximum penalty is dismissal from service.
14:57Has it ever happened?
14:59Never.
15:00Never.
15:03The MCD commissioners come for two to three years.
15:07They pay their obeisance to the ministers and the powers that be.
15:13What interest do they have to align with the interest of the MCD?
15:17MC needs one commissioner, Maria, who goes up to the chief minister or the minister of housing and says, there
15:27are thousands and thousands of encroachments, illegal constructions.
15:33Now, do you want to go ahead with this?
15:36We'll need absolutely thousands and thousands to be demolished.
15:40Or accept the picture and give the exact care to the public.
15:46You know, here is the case of criminal negligence.
15:50First, 21 deaths which happened in Malvianagar and now this one.
15:56An illegal building which collapses.
15:58So, certainly, those inspectors did not do their duty and the buck should stop right at the top.
16:04So, in this case, the MCD commissioner.
16:06So, Mr. Azad, my question then is that if there is criminality which is involved here, which is evident in
16:13this particular case, what should be the punishment against the MCD commissioner?
16:20You forgot the basement tragedy too.
16:23Yes, because what invariably appears is that the IS officers get away.
16:28Yes, because…
16:29Why do they get away?
16:31They get away for the simple reason that their culpability is not defined.
16:36And their culpability is not looked into at all.
16:40Because they are the ones who work very closely with the ministers.
16:43And therefore, these two are above the purview.
16:47And if only you bring these two under the purview of any kind of action, then only things are going
16:55to improve.
16:56Because half the thing here, Maria, what is happening is political.
17:01Why are PG houses getting these licenses that they are not authorized?
17:06Why are they getting all these clearances?
17:09There is culpability below, but there is a benign oversight on the top.
17:15Look at the role of the councillors and the MLAs.
17:18They control the junior engineers.
17:20They are the ones who do nothing except dancing on the benches of MCD town hall, shouting.
17:26And has any councillor brought to the notice of the public anything damaging from the point of view of the
17:33architecture or the ecosystem?
17:35No.
17:37So, it is absolutely a collusion of the political class with the bureaucracy.
17:43Yes, and what is clearly evident is that there is almost an apathy of the babus as the steel frame
17:51of India is called.
17:53Yeshwarda Nazad, thank you for your time.
17:55Let me bring in Sumita Daura now, former Labour Secretary, Government of India.
18:00Ms. Dara, you have served at secretary level.
18:05You have seen how the system disciplines its own.
18:10Is Article 311 actually, would you say that this is this article with safeguards against political vendetta?
18:18Or has it become a shield that lets negligence hide behind?
18:24And of course, you know, what is evident right now is that what was supposed to be the larger ethos
18:30is actually leading to those like Sanjeev Kirwar, who is on our screens, being protected.
18:39This is acting like a shield.
18:44In the context of the Satya Niketan building collapse, you know, the tragedy, what you're asking me is about the
18:52suspension of the five officers and whether this suspension is a firewall or is it anything to do with accountability?
19:00Right. So, you see, suspension may not be a punishment, but it reflects it indicates visible action.
19:11It signals the intention of the government to take disciplinary action to punish the guilty.
19:18It is also a signal to the public that cognizance has been taken and culpability will be fixed.
19:25Having said that, it is important to go towards accountability and suspension has to be accompanied with investigation and also
19:36with inquiry, fixing of the culpability and also making sure that the various aspects of the problem have been addressed.
19:44Is it an individual failure or a systemic failure?
19:47So, all these things have to be examined, how fast the inquiry is completed and what punishment is given to
19:55those who are found responsible for this tragedy.
19:58That is all part of the accountability.
20:00However, having said that, the engineers who've been suspended, the officers who've been suspended, they had a duty to perform
20:08in terms of inspections, in terms of taking cognizance of the violations and reporting it.
20:16In case it is said that they were not aware of any permission having been sought by the, you know,
20:24building under discussion, then was there a mechanism to take cognizance of violations?
20:32There's a sanction plan for every building.
20:35So, when a deviation is taking place and we are told that the sanction plan was only for G plus
20:42one.
20:43Now, here we have a building which is five storey tall.
20:46Was it not, you know, very much visible?
20:51And were we not correlating the data which was available with the MCD?
20:56So, all these aspects are important from the official accountability point of view.
21:01However, there are other stakeholders and their accountability, for example, of the PG operator, the contractor who was doing the
21:09work, the owners, all these are very important aspects and police action has been taken.
21:14There is a magisterial inquiry going on.
21:18Yes, but Ms Dada, the bug certainly doesn't stop with junior engineers who have been suspended.
21:23You have worked inside the bureaucracy for over three decades.
21:26When a commissioner who was already transferred out once for dereliction gets reappointed to the very post responsible for structural
21:35safety,
21:36does the system actually track a bad performance record?
21:41That is a question that is being asked now.
21:43Right.
21:44I've been following in the media how this incident is, it is a kind of a deja vu.
21:49And on the same street, there had been a similar incident four years back.
21:54And also, I read in an India Today report that two of the engineers who've been suspended were also involved
22:01in an earlier incident.
22:03So, yes, it is important to track the record of the officers.
22:07At the same time, you know, it is also important to have a regulatory system in place and also a
22:16mechanism which tracks violations.
22:18So, it is important to make use of technology in today's world to track violations.
22:24Maybe a GIS-based system which helps you see that a building which was never sanctioned is suddenly there in
22:35the colony.
22:36Or, you know, correlating the property tax payments with the physical building which is there.
22:43So, a system which is able to regulate, which is able to watch, which is able to ensure compliances is
22:49very important.
22:50As is important that there is good supervision over the officers.
22:56Yes, the matter doesn't end with the junior engineer, but the junior engineers also have an important role to play.
23:04Do they have a beat to supervise the jurisdiction and to take note of the activity which is going on?
23:14You know, so let's try and understand, and this is for the benefit of the viewers.
23:19What does the rulebook say on the conduct of UIS officers?
23:23Suspension is the immediate optics after every collapse.
23:27You know, be it Mumbai, Bengaluru and now Delhi, the bureaucrats do not face action.
23:33So, tell me, what does the rulebook say?
23:37Right.
23:39See, yes, that could be a perception.
23:43Now, what is important is to, as the High Court has also said, to scrutinise the entire chain of permissions
23:50and responsibilities.
23:52And it is only when there is evidence to nail the culpability that we can declare somebody as guilty and
24:00deserving of punishment.
24:02And the punishment has also to be seen to have been given.
24:06In which case, like I said earlier, it's very important that the pace of the inquiry is maintained and done
24:12speedily.
24:12And those who are found guilty, they should be exemplary punishment so that it's a warning for the system.
24:19And this does not become a legacy that we keep seeing such incidents in the city.
24:26Ma'am, you're speaking about exemplary punishment for a bureaucrat.
24:29As a former bureaucrat yourself, what do you think will be that exemplary punishment?
24:38Well, we have to go as per the laws of the country and what is established as maybe a negligence
24:46or something which they knew, but there was complicit behaviour.
24:51All this has to be established.
24:53Who knew what and when is very important.
24:57Did the junior engineer inspect and give a proper inspection report?
25:01Was it put up to the superiors?
25:03Or was there a violation which was hidden and at what level?
25:07All this chain needs to be scrutinised and responsibility established.
25:13It is only then that we can, and there needs to be evidence.
25:17So we need to, you know, have evidence rather than, you know, rather than just a perception.
25:25And it's also important to question the system.
25:29Who was responsible for creating what happened?
25:33Is the person who's sitting there responsible or were the people who were working before also responsible?
25:39And if this has been happening repeatedly, it's a collective responsibility then to put in place a mechanism which can
25:48identify vulnerable buildings and which can identify violations.
25:54And there's a lot of data which is now available, which can, which could be used by the MCD.
26:01For example, the age of the building, the number of occupants in the building.
26:06When was the inspection last done?
26:08What are the structural changes done?
26:11Are there sanctioned plans for all the buildings which are standing in the colony?
26:15So it's important to utilise the data and have a system in place which works and which highlights red flags
26:22such vulnerable buildings.
26:25All right, Sumita Dora, I appreciate your time.
26:27Thank you for joining us.
26:29Of course, a number of questions that remain unanswered and particularly this has to be about where does the buck
26:34stop?
26:35The buck stops right at the top and this time it is the MCD commissioner.
26:38He has much to explain.
26:41We are putting out that entire debate on our website and also on the YouTube channel.
26:45Thanks so much.