New Delhi, June 5 -- Hours after the fire at a Hauz Rani bed-and-breakfast claimed 21 lives on Wednesday, chief minister Rekha Gupta announced a magisterial inquiry and promised accountability. For families affected by major disasters in Delhi, however, such announcements have become a familiar ritual - one that often leads to reports that are never publicly released, recommendations that remain unknown and accountability that remains elusive. Wednesday's tragedy bore striking parallels to a similar hotel fire in 2019. On February 12, a blaze at Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh killed 17 people amid allegations of unauthorised construction. Then CM Arvind Kejriwal visited the spot and sought a magisterial inquiry report the same day. But according to senior functionaries within the Delhi administration, that report was never submitted to top bureaucrats. "There is no magisterial report available for this incident as well. It was meant to be submitted to the chief secretary within a fortnight, but the office does not have it. Same is the situation with other subsequent cases including the Palam fire earlier this year," said a senior government official, who asked not to be identified. Ideally, copies of these reports are to be submitted to the top echelons of Delhi government and administration. Yet while magisterial inquiries are routinely ordered, their findings have not been placed in the public domain. This raises serious questions: Were any conclusions reached? Was responsibility fixed? What corrective action followed? In December 2019, a fire inside an illegal factory in Anaj Mandi killed 43 people. The government announced a magisterial inquiry, but officials said the report was never submitted. On May 9, a fire in Vivek Vihar killed nine people; that inquiry report has not finished, and thus never been submitted, according to people aware of the matter. Delhi home minister Ashish Sood defended the process. "The [Palam] incident occurred about two months ago. A magisterial enquiry is a quasi-judicial process and takes some time." "We cannot take responsibility for what previous governments did. This B&B was also allowed by the previous government."...