After 27 hours of concerted efforts to pull out students trapped under the debris of the collapsed hostel building in Delhi's Satya Niketan area, the rescue operation came to an end at about 5:10 PM on Monday.
No fresh casualties were reported so far as the NDRF, Delhi Fire Services, and other rescue teams withdrew from the site, leaving the death toll at seven. Of the five survivors of the collapse, three were said to be in a critical condition.
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta on Monday announced that a new committee will be formed to review the existing PG rules, led by Delhi Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood—whom the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has urged to take accountability for the incident.
The committee will also explore options to create accommodations for students through universities, the MCD and the DDA, and will examine the use of vacant DDA housing for students.
"Structural audits of existing PG buildings will also be carried out to ensure the safety and security of students," she added in an X post, about the decisions taken after a joint review meeting chaired by Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sindhu.
As in the case of the Saket building collapse on June 3—which killed six and injured eight others—the Sunday incident has sparked outrage, leading to all five-storey buildings in the city being sealed.
The building's owner, retired Indian Air Force sergeant Hariram Gupta (81), his 75-year-old wife Urmila, and 52-year-old son Mahesh, have all been arrested, with the charges including culpable homicide, negligence in the upkeep of a structure, and endangering the safety of others.
While the boys' hostel building, named 'Hostel Daze', was registered in Urmila's name, Hariram and Mahesh had allegedly been running the paying guest (PG) accommodation, police said, as per a PTI report.
The officer added that the police was now probing the actual cause of the incident, after initial reports and eyewitness accounts pointed to repair work going on in the basement as the most possible reason.
Specifically, they claimed it was this work that had led to water rushing into the basement amid the rain outside, which it could not handle, leading to the collapse.
However, the spectrum of blame has now gone beyond the owners, with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi University (DU) also facing backlash for their alleged negligence that paved the way for such an issue.
After her second visit to the site of the tragedy on Sunday, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta announced that five officials from the MCD had been suspended—the Deputy Commissioner, Executive Engineer, Superintending Engineer, Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer.
This has intensified pressure on MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar, who faces calls for resignation from student groups like the ABVP and NSUI.
In that regard, the Delhi High Court, which had pulled up the MCD and DU for their alleged roles in the disaster, has directed corporation to conduct an inquiry at the highest executive level.
As part of its directions, the court also asked the MCD to inspect all PG accommodations falling under its jurisdiction within a week, and to determine the number of students residing in each PG accommodation.
The court also sought details regarding the existence of a regulatory framework focused on PG accommodations and private hostels.
MCD and DU have now been directed to file separate responses within 10 days, with the matter to be heard next on September 25.
Sparking questions of whether the MCD had known about the building's flaws and not acted on it, if it had not been inspected properly, or if the building had not been constructed in line with PG building norms, the incident has prompted a wider scrutiny of the condition of buildings in the area, even as a number of families grapple with the sudden losses of their loved ones.
