NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Tuesday issued instructions to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to redevelop a “structurally-damaged” condominium in North Delhi’s Mukherji Nagar giving relief to over a thousand of its residents who have been facing “grave danger to life and property,” Raj Niwas officials said.
Saxena has also ordered criminal proceedings against the contractors, builders, and construction agencies for the residential building which has been declared “unsafe to live” only 10 years after people started residing in it, officials said.
Besides, he has also called a vigilance inquiry to identify all officials responsible for the lapses in the buildings’ construction within 15 days, they added. The officials also informed that the L-G house has asked the DDA to draw up an interim rehabilitation plan for the residents till the redevelopment is done.
Built in 2009, the flats in Signature View Apartments were allotted to residents in 2011-2012. However, shortly after, however, the flats started facing construction-related issues, forcing the residents to complain to the DDA. A 2021-2022 study conducted by IIT-Delhi at the behest of DDA found the building to be structurally unsafe. The study also made a recommendation to “vacate and dismantle” the complex, the official said.
The DDA had earlier issued a statement saying, “These allotments are not part of social welfare schemes; that there is no law which makes the DDA responsible for the building in perpetuity, or even in the period in question or it is not the duty of the DDA to maintain the buildings.”
However, officials said that Saxena overruled the DDA’s statement calling it “contrary to the very basic tenet of responsibility and empathy, essentially inherent in the functioning of any service provider especially when the DDA had charged the consumer in the name of maintenance charges for 30 years.”