00:00But let me also introduce my colleagues who are joining us from different locations and bringing us different aspects of
00:05this story.
00:06I'm joined by Shivani, who's been tracking the story from the very beginning.
00:09I'll try and go across to her as well, along with other colleagues of mine who join us now on
00:14the program to give us a clear update.
00:16I'm also joined by Anshul, my colleague, who is at the site of the collapse.
00:25Also joining us now is Arpit Dhandodia.
00:28Arpit is a close friend of Arpit Jaj, who actually has not unfortunately survived this entire incident.
00:36I want to understand what's going on in his mind as well.
00:39And also joining us now is Ayushman Sharma.
00:42He's also a student and has things to say about the event.
00:46But let me first cut across to my colleagues Shivani and Anshul.
00:49Shivani, take us through what exactly is happening, where you are.
00:52And I believe when I was coming here and I was speaking with students,
00:56one thing that really struck me out, that students are really angry that this has been almost 24 hours
01:03and even now the entire debris has not been cleared.
01:07We have no actual number of how many students are still there.
01:12Are they dead? Are they alive?
01:14And that is what is really causing a lot of angst,
01:17that even when a tragedy like this happens,
01:19the response time of the authorities has not been up to the mark.
01:27Sonal, I'm right now at the trauma centre of Ames.
01:31I've been here since morning.
01:32I've been interacting with the families of a few of the diseased and their friends too.
01:38And it's very shocking and it's very unfortunate.
01:42The anguish, the pain cannot be understood without seeing the situation on ground.
01:49The parents who are here to take the mortal remains of their children,
01:54who are here to study and aspiring to be IAS officer,
01:58to be some professionals here,
02:01but they are taking their mortal remains from here.
02:03And the point of anguish is not one.
02:06There are multiple such points on which the students are angry.
02:10The information is not clear.
02:11The first responders took very long to respond.
02:16Initially, the students had to help their friends who were stuck inside that debris.
02:22How many numbers are there?
02:24It's still not clear.
02:25But yes, 12 children were rescued,
02:29out of which 7 have lost their life.
02:313 are in Sabdarjung.
02:32The rescue operation still continues.
02:35And we've also seen some action happening
02:37in terms of the suspension of MCD officials.
02:40But that's not enough, Sonal,
02:42because every time this kind of an incident happens,
02:46these kind of suspensions take place.
02:48But what happens again,
02:49it's really shocking to see that we've been seeing a string of such disasters
02:54in the national capital in the last few years,
02:57starting from the Rajayin Nagar Coaching Institute disaster,
03:00where three students had lost their lives.
03:03In June, we've seen how the Malviya Nagar bread and breakfast facility caught fire.
03:0823 lives were lost.
03:09And every time this happens, there is action on ground.
03:13But later on, nothing happens.
03:15And the MCD that is accountable for this whole situation,
03:20how the norms were being flouted,
03:22why these buildings exist in first place,
03:25and why the PG was running there,
03:27is a big question, Sonal,
03:28that the government needs to answer today.
03:35Right, Shivani, let me, thanks so much for that update.
03:37We're really hoping speedy recovery for all those students
03:39who are fighting for their life,
03:41and hoping against, hope at this point,
03:43that there are survivors who actually make it through.
03:47Let me also cut across to my colleague, Anshul,
03:49who joins us from the collapse site.
03:51Anshul, can you take us through what exactly is the situation right now?
03:54Now, like I was asking Shivani also,
03:57the real angst that the students seem to have over here
03:59is the fact that there is still no clearance of debris that has taken place,
04:03and that is causing a lot of issues.
04:05People say that the first respondents, of course,
04:08were the students and the people who live around the area,
04:11but they were the ones still wondering
04:13if they should be using their hands to clear out the debris,
04:16and what exactly is the situation there,
04:18and is there a number of how many students we are looking at
04:22who could still be trapped inside?
04:29Oh, well, yes, I'll just let the visual speak for themselves.
04:33You can see over here that this entire area has now almost been cleared up.
04:37The last leg of the clearance operation is underway at this point in time.
04:41There is a lot of debris that had collected in the basement,
04:44and that became a very, very difficult task for the authorities
04:47to go ahead and clean that debris which was inside the basement.
04:51In fact, one of the bodies that was recovered this morning
04:54was actually from the stairs of the said basement.
04:58It was seeming like, is what the authorities are telling us,
05:01that the person was trying to escape,
05:03but it was not his lucky day, so to say.
05:07He was not able to get out of the building in time,
05:09and he lost his life on the stairs of the basement that was established over here.
05:13Another thing that I'd like to point out is the rampant corruption
05:16that can be seen in this entire area, in this entire vicinity.
05:20The building that you're seeing on your screens right now
05:22is the building which is right next to the building which has collapsed.
05:26Now, the MCD has finally woken up and has said that the owners of this building
05:31need to demolish this.
05:32But if you look at this entire building,
05:34you'll see that there are almost no pillars that are in this entire building,
05:38and it's just made up of four-inch bricks.
05:41The entire building, five-floor building, is made up of entire bricks.
05:43So even a small shake-up or even a small incident
05:46could trigger massive, massive issues.
05:50At this point in time, this building per se has been evacuated.
05:56People have been taken out from here.
05:58But this is not the story of just one building.
06:01Hundreds of such buildings are operating in this entire area.
06:04We have been reporting that since morning how buildings that are in bad conditions
06:09are being allowed to operate freely.
06:12Remember, this is a residential area.
06:14This is not a commercial area.
06:16So any commercial activities in these buildings could not happen.
06:19But in each and every building that is situated in this vicinity of Satyaniketan,
06:24there is a commercial activity that is happening as well.
06:28Definitely, this is a clear case of rampant corruption
06:32where it seems like that owners of such buildings are in hand in glove
06:37with the authorities, with the members of the officers of the MCD
06:41and also local bead police officers as well
06:44because without their permission, something like this could not happen.
06:47Such buildings at such a massive scale could not be constructed
06:50if at all officers from the MCD and the local police officers on the bead
06:55were vigilant and would have taken action at the right time.
06:58And probably the lives of these seven students who have died
07:01in this very, very tragic incident,
07:03probably their precious lives could have been saved.
07:10All right.
07:11Thanks, Anshul, so much for joining us with the very latest.
07:13We really hope that the entire area is cleared out soon
07:16and we get a full picture of what exactly went wrong over there.
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