To send a strong message to people who violate building bylaws with
impunity, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is taking up a
drive to demolish under-construction buildings which do not comply with
the norms.

BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana ordered the
demolition of the buildings.  Even a community hall in Kengeri, which
had partially collapsed on August 5 killing three workers, will be
demolished.

“By suspending officials and demolishing such
buildings, we are trying to instil fear among those who do not comply
with the norms,” Lakshminarayana told Express.

Assistant Engineers
Santosh and Panchakshari, who were working at Siddapura ward where the
building is located, were suspended from service pending inquiry.The
building had three floors which were illegally constructed.

“Demolition
of illegal buildings is a signal to the builders who are trying to
construct extra floors without taking permission (from the BBMP). The
Zonal Commissioner, Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers to Assistant
Engineers, all should check it.”

He said the building was
constructed by Saleem, a builder. He normally takes vacant sites and
construct apartment complexes. The builder had taken permission to
construct an apartment complex with basement, ground floor and two more
floors. But he had constructed three more floors without taking
permission, he said.

The BBMP authorities also found that the
builder has two more buildings in the same lane. Of the two, the
violation was similar to the building that collapsed  in one and in
another, a floor was constructed without permission, Lakshminarayana
said. 

Residents Dread Demolition

Most of the houses at
Someshwara Layout are packed together with hardly any space between
them. When the apartment block collapsed on Monday, a sheet roofed house
next to it had boulders falling on to their roof. Pointing to the
debris in her compound wall, Poornima, a resident,  asked, “Tomorrow, if
my house is  the first one to go, where do I have to go?”

The
residents in these houses refused to even go out of their homes. “We can
move out now. Where are we to sleep the night? Even if we stay a few
days in a relatives home, for how many days do we have to stay there?”
asked Manjula, whose house would also be affected by the demolishing.
Most of the houses that will be affected belong to the low income groups
BBMP plans to demolish the apartment blocks on Tuesday morning.