South Corpn seals illegal building with family still inside

But for a phone call by police, a family including a 95-year-old woman would have remained trapped in a sealed five-storey building in Tughlakabad Extension.

The incident pertains to a sealing drive carried out by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation against an illegally constructed building in Tughlakabad Extension earlier this month.

On May 2, soon after the sealing drive was over, police called up the South Corporation’s officials and told them some people were trapped inside the building.Now, councillors with the civic agency and its officials, including police, are quibbling over how the family members of the house owner, including his elderly mother-in-law, remained inside the building when it was being sealed.

While officials claimed that the family re-entered the premises after sealing drive was over, opposition Congress councillors said the incident shows the callousness of the BJP-ruled corporation that did not even bother to make sure whether the building was empty. The issue was raised in the South Corporation’s House meeting on Thursday.Leader of Opposition Farhad Suri said, “A police officer then said that the family could not have trespassed after the sealing was over.” To this, municipal commissioner Puneer Kumar tabled a report in the House. 

“The building in question was first given a sealing notice in 2012, but the owner filed an affidavit saying he would rectify the structure,” Kumar said. “He didn’t keep his word and he was served another notice in 2014. On May 2, 2015, a team went to the area to seal the building. They did not find anybody inside the structure and they sealed it.”

The report created commotion in the House meeting. “Some people staged a sit-in while others started a puja just to buy more time to escape the sealing drive. But that doesn’t mean the corporation will not care about vacating the building before sealing it,” said a councillor from Sriniwaspuri, Indu.

Even the newly elected Mayor Subhash Arya agreed that people do indulge in such tricks to avoid sealing. “In this case also the owner stared a puja. But action should be taken only if nobody is inside a building,” Arya said. “I ordered a probe into the matter and the report will be submitted within a week,” he added.