Survey by the civic authority exposed several frauds by the builders
A survey taken up by the civic authority has exposed various fraudulent practices employed by builders to construct buildings illegally in the walled city. According to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation officials, the first two days of the survey in the walled city – primarily Khadia, Raipur, Dariapur, Kalupur and Shahpur – has exposed several frauds by the builders.
According to a senior AMC official, it is committed in three ways. “First, they take permission for repairs and reconstruction of a damaged portion of any old building. When we believed that the permission was for an existing building, in some cases we have found that it was a fraud. There was no building at all. The builders were constructing a new building on the basis of this permission. In the second category, people who had one or two floors constructed third and in some cases fourth floor without any building permission. The third type of fraud – there were no permission at all for the place or structural design for construction. The builders chose to build without any sort of permission,” said the official.
The building-collapse at Kalupur area of Ahmedabad on Friday is proving to be a proverbial Pandora’s box for AMC. Officials promise that they will crack the whip on every builder who has flouted the law. The report is to be submitted on Tuesday.
“In many cases, the plot or building owners give a power of attorney to builders on which they construct multi-storeyed structures. Thus, the responsibility remains on the owner. When such disasters take place, only then the owners come into the picture. We are now trying to get the builders who are behind the illegal constructions,” said IP Gautam, municipal commissioner.
As many as 18 incidents of building collapse were witnessed in Ahmedabad in 2010 in which seven peopled died and 56 others were injured. Figures provided by the Fire and Emergency Services Department show that the situation was not much different in 2009 when 17 such incidents were reported.
Source: Times of India, Indian Express,
Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad Builders, Ahmedabad building collapses, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Builders in India, Building collapses, Frauds by the builders, Survey by the civic authority exposed builder's frauds
[...] the death of five persons in the building collapse incident at Kalupur and a so-called crack down on unscrupulous builders has failed to deter illegal constructions from [...]