Satya Niketan students seek shelter with friends after sudden evacuation

Three Maitreyi College students were forced to leave their Satya Niketan PG at midnight after the MCD declared the building unsafe following a deadly collapse nearby. With no accommodation arranged, they sought shelter with a friend while their belongings remained inside

New Delhi: For three students living in a girls’ PG in Satya Niketan, the aftermath of the building collapse meant leaving their accommodation in the middle of the night, after police arrived at midnight to vacate the building, which could be demolished in the next couple of days from being unsafe.

The three Maitreyi College students who shared a room on the fourth floor of the building had no alternative accommodation arranged for them and had to call a friend in the neighbourhood to ask if they could stay at her flat. Their belongings, including their clothes and other essentials, remained inside the PG, which is located near the collapsed building.

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“We were asked to vacate at 12.30 at night. There was panic because we had no choice at that point. It was already so late, and we had nowhere to go,” Geetanjali, one of the third-year students, told PTI. The MCD has given the owner of their building, property number 13, three days to demolish the structure after it was found to be in a “ruinous and dangerous condition”, following the collapse of a five-storey building in the area, which resulted in the deaths of seven people.

By the time the police arrived, girls living on the lower floors had already vacated their rooms. The students who had been evacuated from other PGs in the area were taken to nearby colleges, including Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College and Sri Venkateswara College, where arrangements were made for them to stay temporarily. They were provided food and shelter as the civic authorities moved residents out of buildings considered unsafe following Sunday’s collapse.

Geetanjali and her two roommates were still staying in one room on the fourth floor. The other three rooms on that floor were occupied by the owners of the PG, who were also present when the police came. “They told us to leave for our safety and said they had been asked to vacate the place. They also said there was a possibility that another building might have to be demolished,” she said.

The students, who pay Rs 8,000 for their three-sharing room, left the building immediately. Geetanjali said she called a friend as they were leaving and told her she was coming over to her flat. “I called my friend at that time itself and told her, ‘They are making us leave, so I am coming to your flat.’ We came here, but our belongings are still in the PG,” she said.

For the students, the problem did not end with finding a place to spend the night. They also had to figure out how to attend college the next morning, while their books, clothes and other essentials remained inside a building they had been told was unsafe. “If we were first-year students and did not have friends or classmates here, where would we have gone at 12.30 at night? There was no real alternative,” another student said.

She said the situation was particularly difficult because college gates had already closed by then. “We had no choice. Even the colleges had stopped allowing entry by that time. We could not have simply gone there either. We had to call someone we knew and ask if we could stay with them,” she said.

Maitreyi College had kept classes in hybrid mode on Monday, which allowed Geetanjali to attend classes remotely. But she said the arrangement did little to resolve the larger uncertainty about her accommodation.

“The classes being in hybrid mode made it possible for me to attend today, but my things are still inside. We do not know yet whether we can go back and stay there,” she said, adding that her parents, who live in Bihar, have already asked her to return home if the situation worsens.

The overnight evacuation came after a five-storey building in Satya Niketan collapsed on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring several others. The building, which housed a boys’ hostel, was identified by the MCD as property number 14.

The collapse has since triggered action against civic officials and scrutiny of other buildings in the densely populated student neighbourhood. The civic body said it would carry out the demolition of property number 13 if the owner failed to comply and recover the cost as arrears of tax.

The MCD has also suspended five officials, including a deputy commissioner and four engineering officials, in connection with the building collapse. The owner of the collapsed property has been arrested, officials said.

The action has heightened concerns among students living in the locality, where a large number of residential properties have been converted into PGs to accommodate students attending Delhi University’s South Campus colleges.

Satya Niketan’s character began changing significantly after Delhi University established its South Campus in 1973. As colleges such as Sri Venkateswara College, Jesus and Mary College and Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College expanded, the locality became a convenient accommodation hub for students seeking to live close to their campuses.