There are more than 16,000 illegal dangerous properties in Delhi, as per MCD records

The disaster that occurred in Lalita Park on Monday night is just waiting to unfold in other parts of the Capital too.


Death trap:u00a0 A dangerous building at I-Block on Gurdwara Road, Lalita
Park in east Delhi on Tuesday. PIC/Imtiyaz Khan

There are more than 16,000 illegal properties in Delhi that came to Municipal Corporation of Delhi's notice during the period between 2003 and 2010.

However, sources point out that the actual number could be more than 2,00,000. "Those who are influential and are in the business of construction, escape the law by influencing the officials with the help of their money and political connections. The building department officials are bribed in crores and illegal constructions go on with impunity," they said.

Sources also point out that the problem is more serious in those areas which were earlier unauthorised and later regularised by the government.

"There would be very few structures whose data and maps would be available with the MCD. Even in this case, MCD doesn't have the record of the building. So, it is not easy to find out how big the structure was at the time of regularisation of the structure," they said.