Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr | Delhi Fire Tragedy Exposes Lawlessness, Urban Decay

Accidents happen, and most of them are caused by human error. But the fire at the Flourish Stay Bed and Breakfast in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar reveals a grim reality of another kind. The fire appears to have started in the basement, where commercial LPG cylinders were stored, and spread to the restaurant on the ground floor, then to the five floors, where guest rooms can accommodate up to 25 people, compared to the legally allowed six. Everything in the building was unsafe. The single entrance/exit, the stairs, the lack of a fire escape, the electronically locking doors, the locked windows blocking ventilation, all made this place a first-class death trap. Local fire safety officials paid no heed; The owner of the thriving run-down facility – with no safety regulations at all but one – did not feel the need to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) for fire safety. Cynicism is innate and based on the reckless attitude that nothing can go wrong. Once things unravel, the whole arrangement collapses like a pack of cards.

The death of 21 people, including 12 foreigners, in the country for treatment and the death of 20 injured, most of them critical, is another statistic for the police and courts that could further increase the death toll. There’s a redemptive story of residents and neighbors in the area rushing to help the homebound inmates – the rules say B&B joints are not commercial establishments like hotels and restaurants – they keep all their ingenuity. For example, they brought out mattresses to break the fall of those who jumped from upper floors, and some young people bravely ran into smoke-filled interiors to pull trapped people out. Here’s the big problem: No one complains about rule-breakers who endanger lives, like the homeowner, because nearly all of them, big and small, break the rules to run their homes. Disasters happen, people feel scolded and sad. And they’ve gone back to their rule-breaking ways because that’s how they run their daily lives. The authorities are not disturbed. This is the most dangerous aspect of urban decay in India; realistic attitude towards life laden with danger.

The phenomenon of dangerous living takes different forms in Delhi. A few days ago a multi-storey building collapsed; Here, students who had obtained their engineering and medical degrees abroad and were appearing for the government-conducted qualifying exam were staying in crowded quarters in another part of South Delhi, not far from the dilapidated house of Malviya Nagar. While those trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building were rescued, 3 people died and many people were injured.

There is a pattern of danger zones emerging in Delhi. Crowded streets in the middle of seemingly ostentatious and polite neighborhoods in the heart of the city have become disaster-prone spots. All are economically distressed lower-middle-class neighborhoods set behind large and sometimes ostentatious facades. South Delhi has developed an unenviable reputation for having desirable addresses – an obsessive role in hierarchical order-conscious Delhi – and this is where the disasters of the week happen. This shows that the city contains its swollen population within the narrow borders of its central districts. It is these crowded areas that have become fine dining hubs, where fashion stores, exotic kitchenware stores, as well as very small tea and coffee places compete for space. The paths are unpaved and uneven, incomparable to uncharted forest roads.

It is said that business continues, organizations provide services, and people seem to hold them with both hands. Ignore all the basic distance rules that must be followed in commercial and residential urban neighborhoods and do not spoil the game by setting off the alarm. The government does not want to be disturbed. All he wants is for things to continue so he can collect taxes from everyone. This is an example of the wild bush in the back streets of the city. How else can one explain the existence of a non-commercial bed and breakfast home accommodation that has grown beyond its commercial boundaries and an undeclared student hostel located in an unsecured building in hidden parts of the city centre?

Are national urban planners who dream of a futuristic India disturbed? Has the local government, be it the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi or the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, stepped up to take action? Local government clerks and inspectors in charge of fire safety measures in the city seem absolutely inert to the point of not even moving a muscle. The owners who run non-commercial homestays and hostels for immigrant students – small businessmen who are forever making small schemes to make big bucks – must be extremely confident in their ability to deal with the bureaucracy at lower levels. And people driven by necessity must be cowering and cowering without complaint in whatever claustrophobic spaces they can find, because they can’t afford to do so.

We are aware of the unsafe and neglected inner cities where the poor live, which mark the megalopolises of the intercontinental world, from Rio de Janeiro to Lagos to Manila. India’s major cities do not have crowded inner cities. Perhaps Dharavi is an exception, but there are also attempts to redevelop it. In India’s major cities, danger zones are the crowded and unregulated backstreets spread across the urban sprawl. Delhi apparently has more of them than most other Indian cities.

The horrific events in South Delhi this week have exposed huge swathes of urban decay. The state government and urban local bodies cannot afford to continue their uninterrupted stupor. And the city’s desperate cannot afford to be passive, to live with danger, to pay the price when things get out of control. Governments have a dirty habit of believing that cleaning up the city means evacuating people. This doesn’t solve the problem. The answer must be one that regularly reorganizes the streets.