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By:

Yogesh Kumar Goyal

19 April 2026 at 6:02:19 pm

Buildings Waiting for Death; Action Needed for Deep Slumber

The heart-wrenching incident that has occurred in Satya Niketan, South-West Delhi, is not merely the collapse of a five-storey building; it is also the collapse of a system in the national capital whose foundation should have rested on the safety of citizens, the rule of law and administrative accountability. In the building where, only a few hours earlier, young people who had come to Delhi from different parts of the country were nurturing dreams of their future, everything suddenly turned...

Buildings Waiting for Death; Action Needed for Deep Slumber

The heart-wrenching incident that has occurred in Satya Niketan, South-West Delhi, is not merely the collapse of a five-storey building; it is also the collapse of a system in the national capital whose foundation should have rested on the safety of citizens, the rule of law and administrative accountability. In the building where, only a few hours earlier, young people who had come to Delhi from different parts of the country were nurturing dreams of their future, everything suddenly turned into a heap of bricks, cement, iron and debris. The cloud of dust will eventually settle, the rubble will be cleared and the roads will return to normal, but the void created in the lives of those families will never be filled. At the time of the incident, several students were reportedly inside their rooms in the five-storey building, a boys’ PG named ‘Hostel Days’, and there are fears that they may be trapped under the debris. The building was reportedly around 40–50 years old, and repair and excavation work was underway in the basement when the incident occurred. This very fact makes the tragedy even more horrifying. The question is not merely why the building collapsed; the real question is how excavation for a basement and construction-related activities were allowed to take place in such an old and sensitive building in the first place. After every major building disaster, the same story is repeated. The administration says that an investigation will be conducted, action is taken against a few junior officials, and after a few days the entire matter gets buried under files. PG Culture The Satya Niketan tragedy is particularly serious because the PG culture is expanding rapidly in Delhi. Thousands of young people from across the country come to the capital to study, prepare for competitive examinations and seek employment, and many of them live in buildings where rooms are small, lanes are narrow, staircases are cramped and the status of safety standards is often questionable. For a landlord, increasing the number of rooms is a business opportunity, but the person living in that room arrives with dreams for his or her future. When a building permitted to have six rooms is turned into one with more than 25 rooms, when a basement meant for parking is used for commercial activities, and when the safety of hundreds of people is made dependent on a single exit route, it is no longer merely a violation of rules; it becomes a reckless gamble with human lives. Past tragedies in Delhi have repeatedly warned us. Whether it was the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy or the basement, coaching centre and commercial-building-related accidents witnessed in recent years, questions have been raised after every incident about safety standards. Locked doors, blocked exits, illegal construction, the absence of firefighting equipment and administrative indifference have repeatedly appeared in the background of such tragedies. Yet the memory of the system is so weak that after a few days everything returns to the old pattern. Present Need What is needed now is not merely the identification of those at fault but a transformation of the system. A comprehensive safety audit of all old multi-storey and commercial buildings in Delhi should be undertaken. Mandatory inspections should be conducted of PGs, hostels, coaching centres and commercial establishments operating in basements. The process of obtaining fire NOCs should be made completely digital, transparent and time-bound. The practice of merely imposing fines on illegal constructions and then legalising them should be ended. Buildings with serious violations should be immediately sealed and, wherever necessary, demolished. Most importantly, accountability must reach the higher levels. Suspending two or four junior employees after an accident is not administrative action; it often becomes a way of evading responsibility. If the negligence, collusion or corrupt conduct of an official has put people’s lives at risk, strict criminal action should be taken against that official. The higher the position, the greater the accountability should be. The rubble of Satya Niketan is not merely a heap of bricks and stones. Beneath it, the credibility of administrative claims, building safety regulations and public trust is also being put to the test. To call this tragedy an ‘accident’ and move on would be the greatest wrongdoing. An accident is something that could not have been prevented, but when the ground for a disaster is prepared through illegal construction, disregard for rules, corruption and administrative negligence, calling it merely an accident is to diminish the truth. (The writer is a senior journalist. Views personal.)

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Mamata is seeing a ghost of Bangladesh behind the massive outrage and waves of protest over rape and murder of the trainee doctor. And the reasons are many.

It’s been over a fortnight. Yet with each passing day the voice of protest is getting louder and stronger. From the streets of Kolkata it’s pouring into roads of hinterland. The cry for justice for a rape victim has consolidated into a wail of demands to set a lot of wrongdoings right. Here in lies the fear and trepidation. Wasn’t the issue that brought the youth of Bangladesh out on the thoroughfares a simple, innocent one of quota reform?

The chief minister of Bengal, known for understanding the pulse of people better than many, was quick to read the signages floating in the political horizon.

The most obvious reason for her to be tensed is that both the regime change in Bangladesh and the mass protest in Bengal, were student-driven to begin with. The two incidents---end of 15 year old Sheikh Hasina government and turbulence in West Bengal, over the heinous crime, falling back to back, the first on August 5th and the latter from August 9th onwards, give natural scope for comparisons. More so, because in both the cases the movement strayed beyond an affected constituency to include aggrieved people at large, cutting across socio-economic demography. If the quota reform protest started by students in Bangladesh became a mass uprising against an autocratic regime, the campaign demanding justice for the rape victim and overall safety and security of women in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal soon snowballed into a movement of no-confidence against the government. Slogans--”Mamata must resign” also got floated in social media much in line with the call for ouster of Sheikh Hasina. In fact “Resignation of Hasina” became the single point agenda into which all other fringe demands coalesced.

Incidentally, even before people started drawing parallels, that there could be a thread of commonality in the way the upheaval in Bangladesh and Bengal played out, Mamata was quick to point out that the Opposition were trying to pull off a Bangladesh by politicizing the tragic incident: “A coordinated approach has been executed by the BJP and the CPIM with support from the Centre to defame Bengal and exploit the situation....They want to make a Bangladesh here. They are taking cues from student unrest in Bangladesh and are attempting to capture similarly. I have no longing for the chair. I came here to serve people.”

Not only Mamata, her political lieutenants are consistently equating the turmoil in Bengal with the mayhem in Bangladesh. Cabinet minister for North Bengal development Udayan Guha threatened to take stern action against those, who would be trying to exploit the situation by emulating a Bangladesh like movement. “ Even after the hospital was vandalised, the police did not open fire on anyone. The police will not allow a Bangladesh type situation. We will not allow Bengal to turn into Bangladesh, Guha thundered.

Is the government’s fear unfounded?

Apart from the similarities on ground zero, as to how and where the future course of events are heading to, there are ample reasons for Bengal to mull on-- as to what led to a Bangladesh like boiling point. To begin with, it’ll be appropriate to talk of Bangladesh and the prevailing situation, that made the students’ protest become big in magnitude. The students were out on the streets because of a high reservation in public jobs. Unemployment and stagnant job market in private sector coupled with a high rate of inflation drove the educated youth to rebel against the government.

But soon the students found enormous number of sympathisers, who were equally at the receiving end. According to Bangladesh citizens, the last two terms of the Sheikh Hasina government were a mockery of democracy. Even elections would be compromised. As Hasina grew from strength to strength, she politicized institutions. The rank and file of police owed allegiance to the ruling dispensation. Extortion, harrassment and raids by police and people in power became rampant. An atmosphere of fear and repression reigned and people got restless to overthrow the government.

Politicization of institutions has been happening in Mamata government too. Allegations are quite strong that police in Bengal functions at the beck and call of political bosses. The lapses and alleged loopholes on the part of police in handling the rape and murder of the young doctor have yet again revealed a sense of confused or misplaced loyalty.

But above everything else both Hasina and Mamata governments allegedly seem to have twined in accepting corruption as a way of life. In Bangladesh jobs of primary and secondary teachers got sold at premium, Rs 10-12 lakh in the Hasina regime. Even police had to pay up for prized postings and transfers. In Bengal busting of the teacher’s recruitment scam has revealed how unsuccessful and ineligible candidates got government jobs in schools in exchange of bribes.

Similarities are multiple and inescapable. Mamata has good reasons to be apprehensive. It’s not only she, who can see and connect the dots. People, out on the streets, clamoring for justice, can see a providential pattern somewhere in the unfolding of future events in these two places-- Bangladesh and Bengal. True, they share more than 2,217 odd km of border. They share the same umbilical cord, other than language, culture, ethos, icons. Even emotions are the same. So she cannot take any risk.

(The writer is a senior jounalist based in Kolkata. Views personal)

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