Following the pre-monsoon survey of dilapidated buildings this year, Pune Buildings' Permission Department has a challenging task of evicting 1000 families living in 300 old and dilapidated buildings especially wadas. Meanwhile, Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) just has 20 dilapidated building, roughly 40 families.
Despite being served eviction notices, the families who have been staying in these buildings for around 50 years have simply refused to adhere to the notice and to all warnings of wall collapse related incidents issued by the department.
City Engineer Prashant Waghmare when contacted said that eviction notices had been issued to the residents living in the old and dilapidated buildings. "People refuse to vacate their houses despite sending them notices of evacuating the building. Besides, the PMC staffers who go to vacate, find a tough time in dealing with tenants residing in the buildings," he added.
Cantonment Executive Engineer, K V Shirodkar said that cantonment residents mostly tenants reside in the old and dilapidated buildings. "When the PCB staff goes to evict them , we are confronted by the residents who allege that we have come there on behalf of the landlords ," he added. According to Shirodkar, most of the buildings are caught in disputes between landlords and the tenants." The landlords do not permit the tenants to carry out repairs. The tenants do not want to give up their long standing claims under tenancy rights. The citizens are living dangerously and they need to vacate the premises as it is in their interest ," he added.
Cantonment based activist Meher Irani said that the tenants should be given surety that their houses will not be compounded by cantonment authorities post eviction. "The landlords should take a considerate view of the tenants and allow them to carry out repair to the old and dilapidated structures. It is shocking to see small kids and senior citizens living hazardously in the old structures without repairs. We will request the board to take a look at the issue once again ," he added.
A number of wall collapse incidents were reported in the city during the recent past. There have been incidents wherein a few lives were lost during sudden wall collapse incidents in PMC and PCB areas.
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