The Hindu 09.12.2010
MCD seals parts of 17 “unsafe” buildings at Lalita Park
Staff Reporter
Traffic blocked:Residents protesting against the sealing of portions of
buildings by the MCD at Lalita Park in East Delhi on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: As part of its drive against unauthorised constructions in
the city in the wake of the building collapse last month which claimed
70 lives, the MCD on Wednesday sealed illegal portions of 17 buildings
in Lalita Park which violated the permissible height limit of 15 metres.
An MCD official said: “The entire buildings were not sealed. Only
their fourth or fifth floors which were above the permissible limit of
15 metres were targeted.”
However, the drive was marred by violence with a group of building
owners allegedly manhandling MCD councillor Sohan Lal at a parking lot
in Lalita Park. Meanwhile, another group of locals also protested on the
busy Vikas Marg blocking traffic for some time.
The civic body had on Tuesday also asked the owners of 638 buildings
in Shahdara South Zone to conduct structural safety check of their
houses and apply to the MCD for regularising them.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress in the MCD slammed the preliminary
report of the probe submitted by the civic body’s vigilance department
into the Lalita Park incident and demanded a CBI inquiry in the matter.
In the first disciplinary action ordered by the MCD after the
incident, the civic body had suspended four officials including two
engineers for allegedly allowing two illegal floors to come up in the
building. As per the report, unauthorised construction was carried out
in the building during 2004-05 when Congress was in power.
Mr Sharma said: “We reject the report as it is politically motivated
and submitted under political pressure. The building was actually
constructed in 1997-98 when the BJP was in power. The BJP is trying to
protect the big fish and make some lower-level workers the scapegoat. We
demand a CBI probe into the issue to bring the real facts to light.”