Kin of Mundka fire victims await aid, Delhi govt assures quick disbursal
Families of the victims of the devastating fire in a Mundka factory in which 27 people were killed have said that they were waiting for the ₹10 lakh compensation that the Delhi government had announced in the aftermath of the incident
Families of the victims of the devastating fire in a Mundka factory in which 27 people were killed have said that they were waiting for the ₹10 lakh compensation that the Delhi government had announced in the aftermath of the incident. Many of them said that they were finding it difficult to survive and taken up odd jobs since they lost their breadwinners to the May 13 blaze.
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Moni, 19 --- sister of Pooja, 21, who died in the incident -- said that she and her younger sister, Tanu, 15, have started cleaning utensils in a nearby locality because Pooja was the only earning member of the family. She added that their father passed away a few years ago. “Pooja used to earn about ₹10,000 a month in the factory and we were studying. Our father passed away years ago and we were raised by our mother,” said Moni, a resident of Parvesh Nagar in west Delhi.
Of the Rs10 lakh, the government has already paid ₹1lakh to the victims’ families.
The Delhi government has, however, assured that the disbursal of the financial compensation will soon be expedited.
A Delhi government spokesperson said the chief minister’s office has looked into the matter and directed the revenue department officials to expedite the disbursal of the compensation to all the victims.
“It (the compensation) was announced by the chief minister, and every victim will get what has been promised to them. The delay in disbursal has been brought to our notice, and the chief minister’s office has looked into the issue. The CMO has directed to expedite the process and distribute the compensation at the earliest,” the spokesperson said.
In one of Delhi’s worst fire tragedies, a four-storey building where a CCTV and router assembling unit was being illegally run went up in fire killing 27 people, most of them workers of the factory. The bodies of the victims were charred beyond recognition, forcing the police to get DNA analysis done on all of them to recognised them before handing over the remains to the families.
The police have arrested the owner of the building, and two brothers who were running the illegal factory in connection with case.
Two women who lost their elder sister in Mundka fire tragedy said they have taken up jobs as house helps to make ends meet since their dead sister was the lone bread winner for the family.
Sunita, 40, a resident of Mundka, who lost her daughter Sonam, 22, said that her salary of ₹8,500 a month is not enough to manage expenses of her two children aged 17 and 20 years. Sunita lost her husband to Covid-19 in 2021 and exactly, a year later, her daughter died in the fire tragedy.
“We have gone to the district magistrate office, the local police station and even the house of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. At the CM’s house, when we were told that we need to fix an appointment to meet him, we handed over the application to his office staff,” she said.
Manoj Thakur, 40, the husband of Soni Kumari, and Akbar, 36, the husband of Masarrat, also complained that the financial aid has been delayed. Both Soni and Masarrat were among the 27 victims of the devastating blaze. “It’s been two months. First, we had to wait for the mortal remains and now we have to wait for compensation,” said Manoj.
The fire started at 4:40pm on Friday on the first floor. It quickly spread to the second floor where all 70 employees of the CCTV firm were present to attend a motivational lecture.
Based on the recommendations by an inquiry committee set up after the incident, the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation suspended three officials and launched a vigilance inquiry against a fourth for not acting against the illegal building.
Citing the inquiry report, a North MCD official had then said that there were multiple illegalities involved, and were not acted upon by the officers concerned. He said that the building is situated on a road which has neither been marked commercial nor mixed land use. Also, the building comes under the Lal Dora land where industrial units cannot be established.
Hemani Bhandari is a Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in New Delhi, where she reports on crime, policing, governance and social issues. With over a decade of experience in journalism, she specialises in combining on-ground reporting with evidence-based storytelling to examine the human impact of public policy, law enforcement and urban governance. Over the years, she has reported extensively on major developments in the capital, including crime investigations, civic challenges, protests, and issues affecting vulnerable communities. As a Special Correspondent, she focuses on producing exclusive investigations, enterprise stories and long-form features that go beyond daily news cycles. She has a keen interest in using public records, official data and field reporting to uncover systemic issues and present complex subjects in an accessible manner. A graduate of the Asian College of Journalism, Hemani believes in rigorous, ethical and evidence-based reporting. She is passionate about investigative journalism and continuously seeks to expand her skills in data journalism, open-source investigations and digital reporting techniques.Read More
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