A committee headed by Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood will review existing PG rules, explore additional student accommodation through universities, the MCD and the DDA, and examine the possibility of using vacant DDA housing for students, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced on Monday.
The announcement came a day after seven students were killed in a building collapse in Delhi’s South Campus area.
Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu chaired a joint review meeting on building safety, student accommodation and PG regulations across Delhi. The meeting focused on strict safety checks, clear responsibility and better coordination among agencies. Structural audits of existing PG buildings will also be carried out to ensure the safety and security
of students, Gupta wrote on X.
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Committees of DM, DCP and DC (MCD) will proactively reach out to students living in PG accommodations and listen to their problems and grievances and comprehensive database of students to be compiled.
“Creating panic by mindless sealing drives will only lead to students becoming homeless,” the LG said, adding that “inspection drives should be conducted in premises housing students as PGs and had prima facie violated height and floor restrictions”.
The LG also directed that the DDMA control room with contact numbers must be made operational immediately if any disaster occurs. It should monitor the rescue operation, health-related treatment support in hospitals, authentic media release and coordination with relatives of the victims.
The LG further directed officials to assess the feasibility of using unutilised Delhi Development Authourity (DDA) housing stock for student accommodation.
During the meeting, Sandhu also emphasised strict enforcement against unsafe buildings, clear institutional accountability and an emergency mechanism under the Delhi Disaster Management Authourity (DDMA) for swift grievance redressal and crisis coordination.
The decades-old building in south Delhi collapsed around 1.30 pm on Sunday while repair work was underway.
The death toll in the building rose to seven on Monday as search and rescue operations entered the second day, with 12 people rescued from the debris and the owner of the building, Hariram, arrested by Delhi Police from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan.
LG Sandhu and Chief Minister Gupta had visited the site on Sunday to take stock of the rescue work, and warned of strict action against officials responsible for the tragedy.
