16 buildings sealed by MCD in Mukherjee Nagar

NEW DELHI: Four months after a fire engulfed a coaching centre in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area, triggering alarm among students and stakeholders, the MCD on Saturday sealed 16 properties, including nine coaching institutes, in the area for allegedly violating fire safety norms.“We have sealed as many as 16 properties out of which 9 are coaching institutes,” a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official said.

As per the civic agency’s order passed outside the concerned properties, accessed by this newspaper, the buildings violated the building bye-laws as it was in contravention to the sanction building plan, i.e., running without obtaining a valid Fire No Objection Certificate (NOC) issued by the fire department.

The notices said that the action was being taken for violations under sections 345-A and 347 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957 (66 of 1957).

According to section 345-A of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the commissioner has been granted power to seal unauthorized constructions. Section 347 of the Act restricts the use of those buildings. The order also stated that the owners of the properties in question continued their activities in the premises even after being served show cause notices for using the premises without obtaining NOCs from the fire department since the height of the buildings is more than nine meters.

Commenting on the development, an MCD official said that the civic body is examining the replies to notices served to the alleged property owners and in case of unsatisfactory reply, the law will take its own course. It may be recalled that a few weeks back, a massive fire broke out in a girls’ paying guesthouse in the Mukherjee Nagar area. The fire was extinguished by the Delhi Fire Service and around 35 girls, who were stuck in the building, were evacuated.

In June, fire engulfed the top floor of a building in which a coaching institute was running its classes. About 200-250 students were present there at the time of the incident. The students were seen smashing windows, and climbing down through ropes and ladders in order to escape from the fire.