New Delhi, Sept. 13 -- On 6 September, a five-storey building in Delhi's Satya Niketan being used as a paying-guest facility collapsed, killing seven people, most of them students. The building was unauthorized. It had an illegally dug basement. Within three days, the response had moved from rescue to legislation.

Delhi now proposes a law under which every paying-guest facility must obtain a licence within 90 days, collect no-objection certificates from the police, municipality and local administration, register on a portal, install CCTVs, keep a warden within 500 metres, submit to quarterly inspection by a new committee, and charge rent within bands fixed by another.

Nobody can argue against structural safety. But the tragedy poses a n...