The Hindu 26.08.2009

Only one apartment has official clearance

Sudipto Mondal

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

UNSAFE: Although the number of high-rise structures in Mangalore is increasing by the day, none of them are following the regulations governing the construction.

MANGALORE: The nine-storey “Roy Constructions” residential apartment on Vyasarao Road in Kadri is the only building in the entire city to have got a Clearance Certificate from the Fire and Emergency Services Department.

Making this shocking revelation to The Hindu on Tuesday Chief Fire Officer H.S. Varadarajan said that lack of fire safeguards in high-rise buildings was “alarming” and could have serious consequences in the event of an accident.

Mr. Varadarajan’s statements assume significance in the light of a major fire that broke out in the “Trade Centre” building on the Bunts Hostel-Jyothi Circle Road here on July 12.

The Clearance Certificate is given to a building only after it is fully constructed. And, the building can get an Occupancy Certificate – a document to be obtained from the civic body - only after it receives this clearance from the Fire Department. The question that begs to be asked then is, how did all the buildings in Mangalore get occupied? Do they have Occupancy Certificates? Or, did they occupy the buildings without even having an Occupancy Certificate?

DC’s letter

A letter written by the Deputy Commissioner to the Urban Development Department on July 3, 2008 throws partial light on the subject of Occupancy Certificates. In his letter, which was based on a random survey of 17 high-rise buildings in the city, the Deputy Commissioner observes that most of these buildings do not have occupancy certificates – indicating that they did not have clearances from the Fire Department either.

He goes on to recommend that as a punitive measure, the city corporation should “impose fines of up to five to 10 times the existing tariff for water and power” on the owners of these buildings. But, this recommendation has not been implemented.

The Deputy Commissioner makes another significant observation that Occupancy Certificates have been issued to these buildings despite the fact that they have “flouted building bylaws and fire safety regulations”. These buildings had been given Occupancy Certificates without having the Clearance Certificate from the Fire and Emergency Services Department. Mr. Varadarajan said that of the 73 applications for “No Objection Certificate (NOC)” received by his department from big builders, 38 had been rejected. These NOCs are given after verifying the blueprints of the projects and as per the rules, builders cannot start construction before obtaining these NOCs for their project proposals.

However, he admitted that several of these builders, whose plans had been rejected, had gone on to start their constructions. Sources in his department said that many builders used to apply for NOCs well after finishing the construction of their buildings.

Vidya Dinker, an activist from the Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development, said that her organisation had been battling the real-estate mafia behind these violations with limited success since 2004. Tracing the timeline of this battle she said that in 2004 her organisation had appealed to the then Deputy Commissioner, Mangalore Urban Development Authority, and the commissioner of city corporation. When that did not work, the forum approached the Urban Development Department, the Department of Municipal Administration, and the then Chief Minister D. Dharam Singh. Mr. Singh told the local authorities that Mangalore could not be exempted from the National Building Code. But, in October 2005, the city corporation, allegedly with the encouragement of local MLAs, cutting across party lines, mooted a resolution that the builders of the city need not follow safety guidelines.

This resolution was struck down by the Chief Secretary on 19 December, 2005. Ms. Dinker said: “But a few months later, we got specific information that the builders were trying to buy their way out and secure a one-time exemption. That is when in February 2006 we filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court.”