Builders asked Workers to use Poor Material resulting in Building Collapse
The under-construction building which collapsed recently in Shalimar Bagh, Ghaziabad was built by the construction firm, Kranti Associates. Police is invetigating the case and came to conclusion that- builder’s elder son had not only ordered his workers “to use substandard cement, but also did not allow sufficient curing of the cement to save on electricity” required to pump water.
Ghaziabad SSP Raghuvir Lal added that the builder’s son, Maitreya, has been involved in construction of 12 multi-storey buildings in Ghaziabad and two in Delhi. Maitreya and his mother Kranti Devi — who lives in Laxmi Nagar and heads the construction firm, Kranti Associates — are on the run. A massive operation has been launched to arrest Maitreya and his mother, who is about 60 years old.
The contractor, Kishan Singh Chauhan, and supervisor Devendra, who have been arrested, told police about using substandard cement and other deficiencies.
Lal said Maitreya is also a distributor of an expensive, well-known brand of wooden flooring. The authority has come in for criticism from residents. Ghaziabad industrialist, SK Maheshwari, who has in the past filed several PILs against GDA, said, “The junior engineers and assistant engineers are expected to inspect all large buildings under construction. The authority levies a supervision charge and has no excuse for letting builders get away with such crimes. But the problem is corruption.”
Meanwhile, GDA vice-chairman Narendra Chowdhary said, “The supervision charges levied by the GDA are only for checking out the adherence to the building bylaws and not to check for any flaws in the construction of the buildings. A number of notices had indeed been sent by the GDA’s enforcement department to the builder in the case of the building that collapsed on Saturday. I do not immediately recall the details of the violations.”
Kranti Associates was reportedly constructing three-bedroom flats in the building.
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