Fire: Rights body takes cognisance of Delhi building violations
NEW DELHI: Taking suo motu cognisance of the fire in an illegal commercial four-storey building in Mundka that claimed the lives of 27 people and left 17 others injured, a team from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday visited the spot to probe if the workers in the building were subjected to any human rights violations.
“NHRC has taken a suo-motu cognizance (of the fire tragedy) and formed a team that will look into the violations related to human rights. The probe has started and it is the first day of our visit to the incident spot. As facts emerge and come to our notice, accordingly the probe will progress,” said Sunil Meena, deputy inspector general, NHRC, who led the probe team.
In a statement on Sunday, the NHRC on Sunday also said it has sent a notice to the Delhi government’s chief secretary to submit a report within two weeks on the “action taken against the responsible authorities/officers, fixing the culpability” and the “status of disbursement of the relief/ rehabilitation granted by the government, if any”.
The fire broke out at the building on Friday and the police have already arrested the owner of the building and the two brothers who ran an illegal assembly unit occupying three floors inside it.
Of the 27 people killed in the fire, only eight have been identified and investigators have collected DNA from the families of those missing to identify the remaining bodies.
“They will focus their probe on the working condition of the employees and violations of their human rights, apart from the reasons because of which people were trapped inside,” said a police officer.
‘Cramped space, no phones allowed’
A few people, who worked on the three floors rented out to the illegal factory unit assembling CCTV cameras, Wi-fi routers and RO water purifiers, alleged that they had to work in close proximity on the floors as there were many too employees.
Sunita, mother of Sonam (20) who is among those reported missing after the fire, said that phones of workers, especially those in assembling work, used to be collected at the start of the shift around 7am and were returned only briefly during lunch. “They used to take it again and return it only after the shift,” said Sunita, who has given her DNA sample to check if her daughter is among the 19 bodies remaining to be identified.
Pushpa Panwar, who survived the fire by climbing down the building on a crane, said the building had a single entry and exit, alleging that materials were also kept on the staircase. “They should have at least made more entries and exits,” she said.