MCD begins pulling down the girls' PG next to the Satya Niketan collapse

Municipal Corporation of Delhi crews started a controlled demolition on 8 September of the girls' paying-guest building next to the five-storey block that fell in Satya Niketan on 6 September. Work paused in the evening and was due to resume on the morning of 9 September. The neighbouring structure had been declared dangerous and emptied after the collapse. An MCD order on property number 13 told the owner or occupier to take the building down because it threatened residents and adjoining plots. Eighteen to 20 iron props were holding what remained upright.

The original collapse killed seven people and injured five. It happened around 13:30 on Sunday during repair work at P-14, a resettlement-colony plot of about 55 square yards. Rescue teams pulled 12 people out, six of them alive. Police booked three Gurugram brothers, Hariram, Anand and Azad Bansal, for culpable homicide and endangering safety. A lookout circular led to Hariram's arrest in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.

MCD's own file is the sharp part of the story. Officials told PTI the standing building was ground-plus-four with a basement. The only permission on record was ground-plus-one. No plan was approved for the extra floors. The corporation's report also says there was no record of booking or sealing at P-14 and no complaint on file. Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar has pointed to 960 demolitions, 407 sealings and 1,500 notices in the previous three months. That volume makes the miss at P-14 harder to explain, not easier.

The political response has been a sweep. Five engineers, including South Zone deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar, were suspended. Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta ordered inspections of paying-guest hubs and a structural audit of every building in those clusters within a week. Since the collapse, MCD has demolished 24 properties and sealed seven. On Monday it took down seven and sealed two. On Tuesday it took down 17 and sealed five. From 1 to 8 September the running tally is 48 demolitions and 15 sealings, plus 90 show-cause notices for unauthorised building, 124 sealing notices and 66 demolition orders. Action has been logged in all 12 zones, including Laxmi Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Jamia Nagar, Shaheen Bagh, Karol Bagh and Chandni Chowk. A survey circulated inside the corporation listed 62 buildings as dangerous citywide. Sixteen of those had already come down and four had been sealed when the list moved; 42 remained.

Satya Niketan sits by the South Campus of Delhi University. The collapsed block was a boys' hostel known locally as Hostel Daze. The building now being cut down housed women students. Both uses are typical of the neighbourhood: old plots, extra floors, rent paid by outstation students, and a file in the civic office that does not match the skyline.

The Supreme Court said on 8 September it will hear issues from the collapse on 10 September and may take the matter away from the Delhi High Court if it sees a need for a wider order. That hearing will decide whether P-14 stays a south-zone enforcement case or becomes a template for how the capital treats every G+1 file that grew four floors in the night.