India, Oct. 8 -- The building collapse in Delhi's Seemapuri, which killed at least five people, has once again exposed the gap between rules and their enforcement. The collapse has striking similarities with a string of building fires and collapses in the Capital this year. Magisterial inquiries repeatedly found illegal construction, regulatory failures, ignored warnings and weak emergency preparedness in these cases.

HT accessed the magisterial inquiry reports into the Saidulajab building collapse and the fires in Hauz Rani, Palam and Vivek Vihar. All four reports highlighted how multiple agencies had overlooked glaring red flags.

The Seemapuri building, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), was 20-25 years old and sto...