Roof collapse: NDMC suspends 3 engineers

NDMC today suspended three of its senior engineers over the roof collapse incident in north Delhi last night in which two people were killed and also ordered an inquiry into the matter.
The three officials of the Building Department of Narela Zone -- Junior Engineer Jitender Khatri, Assistant Engineer RK Jain and Executive Engineer BS Meena -- have been placed under suspension by Municipal Commissioner PK Gupta, a senior NDMC official said.
Two labourers died in the mishap, which took place at 8:30 P.M. Last night in a two-storeyed under-construction godown in the Alipur area here.
Also, nine labourers were injured in the roof collapse, police said. The injured persons were rushed to nearby hospitals, including Harishchandra Hospital in Narela.

A senior NDMC official claimed that "illegal construction" was on at the godown.
"The godown comes under the extended 'lal dora' region of the city and adjoins some farmlands in outer Delhi. Our junior engineer had yesterday visited the place and warned against any unauthorised construction.

"But, by night, more labourers had assembled and work was resumed," alleged the NDMC official.
He said that the Additional Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the area and other senior officials have visited the site.
'Lal dora' is the term used to refer to land which forms that part of the village habitation that is used for non- agricultural purposes only and was exempted from building by- laws, construction norms and related regulations under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.