A week after the Malviya Nagar fire that claimed 22 lives and exposed the dangers of unchecked construction in Delhi, a citywide inspection drive has revealed widespread safety and building violations across the Capital.
Over the past few days, the Revenue Department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) inspected 452 properties spread across all 13 districts. These included hotels, guest houses, banquet halls, schools, laboratories, commercial establishments and under-construction buildings.
The MCD carried out demolition action against 139 properties and sealed 199 more between June 1 and June 9.
Pattern of Non-Compliance
What they found was a pattern of non-compliance that cut across neighbourhoods, property types and price categories. The scale of Tuesday's inspection, spanning properties across West Patel Nagar, Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Old Delhi, Yamuna Vihar, Karawal Nagar, Shahdara, Wazirabad, Vikas Puri, Janakpuri, Darya Ganj and Mahipalpur, underlined how pervasive the problem is and how little enforcement had been happening before the Malviya Nagar disaster prompted authorities to act.
From a five-star hotel, Novotel, in Paharganj to budget OYO hotels in North East Delhi's Karawal Nagar and Yamuna Vihar, the pattern of violations was strikingly similar - no fire NOC, non-functional emergency buttons, staff untrained in basic fire safety protocols and no disaster management plan on record.
Specific Findings
In Karawal Nagar, officials found a commercial establishment on Khajoori Pusta Road whose owners refused to disclose the name of the business and declined to accept the notice.
Inspections in West Patel Nagar showed particularly sharp findings. Show-cause notices were issued to Deventure Hotel and Hotel Dev Palace on BP block after inspectors found fire extinguishers without display boards, non-functional fire alarms and rooms built beyond the sanctioned floor plan. At Dev Palace, the sanctioned plan allowed 18 rooms. However, 20 were found operational. At nearby Gagan Inn, a notice was issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005.
In Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk and Sadar Bazar, the city's most congested and fire-vulnerable areas, two G+6 buildings were found to have been constructed beyond permissible height without fire clearances. One building was sealed, while another was issued a show-cause notice.
In North Delhi's Wazirabad area, falling under the Adarsh Nagar sub-division, four G+5 buildings were found lacking sanctioned building plans, fire NOCs and MCD completion certificates. Notices were issued under Section 152 of the BNSS-2023. In Badli, two under-construction sites were found operating illegal borewells without MCD permission.
In West Delhi's Janakpuri sub-division, pre-schools operating in unsanctioned buildings without fire NOCs were served notices. In Vikas Puri, laboratories and educational institutes in the DDA Market were found operating on multiple floors without fire clearances. Some pre-schools were found running in buildings without sanctioned plans or fire safety approvals.
In South West Delhi, demolition drives were conducted at agricultural land in Nanakhheri and Jharoda Kalan, Surakhpur and Haibatpura villages, where landowners had converted agricultural land into non-agricultural use without permission.
Several hotels in the Mahipalpur and Dwarka area, a corridor heavily used by airport travelers, were found locked, with their signboards removed. Officials noted that the owners appeared to have shut operations pre-emptively following the crackdown.
