RTI revealed that the survey to identify'unsafe'properties is conducted only in planned colonies
An RTI query has revealed that there are only two 'dangerous' (structurally precarious) buildings present in the national Capital. These two structures are located in East Delhi, the area which is mostly built along the Yamuna river-bed and is most prone to earthquakes as well as"illegal" constructions.
The RTI filed by DNA revealed that the survey by the civic bodies to identify 'unsafe' properties is conducted only in planned colonies, even as hundreds of such structures endangering life and property have been cropping up in close neighbourhood.
As per the response given by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), of the 39,3877 houses inspected in the area in 2017, only two buildings were found 'dangerous' while two others were found repairable.
"The two buildings located --- in Shahdara (North) and Shahdara (South), respectively --- the dangerous portion of one was removed while an undertaking to submit a structural stability certificate was taken from the owner of another," the response stated.
One of the engineering branches in Keshav Puram under the North Corporation stated that "five unsafe buildings were found in their area over the last five years, of which the dangerous portions have been demolished."
Interestingly, this is despite the fact that last year, a data of dangerous buildings released by the three municipal corporations -- North, South and East --- revealed that there were 10 structurally precarious buildings in the city. The figure was released after incidents of two structure collapsing took place, including a four-storey building in east Delhi's Lakshmi Nagar and a wall in southwest Delhi's Rajokri.
The South and North corporations have 104 wards each falling under them while the East Corporation is the smallest in size with only 64 wards.
According to senior civic officials, East Delhi housing over 1,600 unauthourised colonies spread across areas like Pandav Nagar, Ganesh Nagar, Geeta Colony, Vinod Nagar and Lakshmi Nagar, among others has the largest number of "unauthourised structures".
Of these 91 colonies were regularised while 900 others were approved for regularisation in 2012.
"The civic bodies can keep an eye on these buildings and issue notices for illegal constructions but these, so far, are not included in the survey," informed the officer.
However, officials said, since houses in these colonies do not have a sanctioned building plan, they cannot be included in the survey. These houses with adjoining walls stuck up against one another in narrow lanes are like ticking bombs. The plot size is too small while the height of the building which, as per the rules must not be more than two floors, rather has four to six storeys, which is a violation of building rules as per the Delhi Master Plan 2021.
THE SURVEY
- The RTI reply said that the survey by the civic bodies to identify ‘unsafe’ properties is conducted only in planned colonies
- But hundreds of structures endangering life have cropped up in close neighbourhood
- Of the 3,93,877 houses inspected by EDMC, only two were found ‘dangerous’
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