Urban News

The Hindu 15.07.2009

‘Structural stability: onus on local bodies’

Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM: Local bodies should focus on ascertaining structural stability of buildings by appropriate scientific methodology that may involve studying the designs adopted, physically verifying the steel using scanners and verifying the strength of the concrete by non-destructive tests, the Visakhapatnam Centre of the Indian Institute of Architects has said.

Members of the association participated in a meeting organised by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) on the implementation of the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) last week.

The Visakhapatnam Centre Chairman D.V.K. Sudhakar in a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner B. Sridhar said that members of the centre were at the service of GVMC to lend a hand for any citizen-friendly activities.

The association, however, noted that when it came to safety there could be no middle path. In the light of the High Court’s remarks on ‘BPS Mela’ organised in Hyderabad, the purpose of the meeting organised by GVMC appeared to find a middle path for obtaining the certificate. On the implementation of the BPS, Mr. Sudhakar said violation of building norms led to inadequately ventilated buildings, a cause for poor health. Under BPS, instead of addressing the deficiency, citizens were being penalised, he said. “Levying of penalty is meant to be a deterrent for not repeating violation of regulations but with recurring schemes of penalisation/regularisation wrong signals were being sent that one could violate norms and pay the penalty,” he observed.

Mr. Sudhakar said when the need of the hour was co-operation from people and their participation for cash-strapped civic bodies to do their duties better, citizens were being alienated because of BPS policy and the innumerable sets of regulations heaped on them which were “the real cause for violations.”

Structural aspects

In his opinion accompanying the memorandum, a structural engineer, S.V.N. Suryanarayana Raju, said as far as safety of people living in the buildings was concerned there was only one approach- a comprehensive structural analysis of the building. Any other means of visible inspection should not be deemed as technically qualified assessment, he said. Comprehensive assessment was mandatory for buildings built on encroached areas like ‘geddas’ as there was more possibility of structural failure due to soil settlements and erosion.

The Hindu 12.07.2009

Rain-related damage in Udupi put at Rs. 29 cr.

Staff Correspondent

GEARING UP: Members of the National Disaster Response Force unit who arrived in Udupi on Saturday conducting a drill at Kalmady near Malpe.

Uudpi: Home Minister V.S. Acharya said on Saturday that the damage to life and property owing to rainfall in Udupi district had been estimated at Rs. 29 crore.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting with district-level officials here Dr. Acharya said that lightning had killed two persons and two others were drowned in floods in the last 10 days. Sea erosion had been reported from places such as Udyavara and Padukere villages. As many as 64 villages had been affected. The Udyavara-Padukere concrete road had been damaged, he said.

Various department in the district suffered losses owing to the rainfall. The Public Works Department suffered a loss worth Rs. 11.19 crore followed by Udupi City Municipal Council Rs. 2.89 crore; Kundapur Town Municipal Council Rs. 1.05 crore, Kundapur Panchayat Raj Rs. 2 crore; Zilla Panchayat Engineering Department Rs. 8.15 crore; Mescom Rs. 59 lakh; agriculture Rs. 27 lakh; minor irrigation Rs. 89 lakh; revenue Rs. 57 lakh; National Highways Authority Rs. 50 lakh; abd Karkala Town Municipal Council Rs. 51.5 lakh.

Roads in the district had been seriously damaged owing to monsoon, he said and added that the authorities concerned had been told to take up immediate steps to repair the roads and not wait till September for the monsoon to end as was normally being done. The Government would be urged to provide Rs. 10 crore for repair of roads, Dr. Acharya said.

An 89-member unit of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had arrived in the district to help the administration in tackling any emergency arising out of heavy rainfall. The State Government had requested the Prime Minister’s Office to station two units of the NDRF permanently in the State, one each at Udupi and Honnavar in Uttara Kannada district, to deal with exigencies, he said.

The district administration had been asked to provide a permanent building to store equipment such as boats and ropes to take up rescue operations in case of emergencies, he said.

In response to a question, Dr. Acharya said that the people from 10 districts and the neighbouring State of Kerala were involved in a pitched battle with the police a few days ago in Mysore. It was a wilful violation of prohibitory orders that had been clamped there to precipitate the situation. A daily report on the situation in Mysore was being sent to the Union Government, he said.

MLAs Lalaji Mendon and Raghupati Bhat, in-charge Deputy Commissioner Prasanna Kumar and Superintendent of Police Pravin Pawar were present.

Dr. Acharya handed over a compensation cheque to the parents of Rajashri (24), who had drowned in a rivulet at Manipura village. Later, he visited flood-affected areas here.

Two houses damaged

Two houses were partially damaged owing to rains in Udupi district on Saturday.

According to Kundapur taluk office, a house was partially damaged at Shedimane village and the loss was estimated at Rs. 5,000. The Karkala taluk office sources stated that a house was partially damaged at Kantawar village and the loss had been put at Rs. 3,500.

Rainfall

Rainfall in the district has receded significantly. The district received an average rainfall of 30.46 mm. The rainfall in the three taluks was: Udupi – 56.8 mm; Kundapur 9.2 mm; and Karkala – 25.4 mm.