New Delhi, Sept 7: CPI National Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar along with CPI Delhi Secretary and National Executive member Prof. Dinesh Varshney, former Dean of Students’ Welfare of Delhi University, AISF General Secretary Dinesh Seerangaraj and AISF President Viraaj Devang on Monday visited the Satya Niketan building collapse site and interacted with teams engaged in ongoing rescue and relief operations.
AISF-AIYF Delhi activists are present at the site round the clock extending all assistance to the rescue teams and affected families.
The leaders said the tragedy which claimed seven lives of students staying in a PG accommodation has exposed the urgent need for accountability and structural reform and demanded that hostel accommodation be ensured for all Delhi University students by mandating every college and educational institution to provide separate hostels for boys and girls and that Delhi Government should establish a centralized student hostel facility to provide safe and affordable accommodation. The party also demanded adequate compensation and immediate support to those killed and injured and their families, a comprehensive time-bound safety audit of all PGs, hostels and student accommodations across Delhi with immediate identification of unsafe structures and action against them, and fixing of accountability for negligence, regulatory failures and violations that put lives at risk. The CPI said decisions on student accommodation, safety audit and accountability must be finalized in today’s 5 PM meeting at LG House involving Chief Minister, DDA, MCD and all concerned authorities and that Central and State Governments must allocate at least six percent of GDP to education as necessary investment for safe, accessible and quality public education, stressing that students cannot be left to pay exorbitant rents for unsafe PGs after working hard to secure admission and that safe accommodation and education are public responsibilities and not private privileges.
