It is the duty of GHMC officials to carry out inspections of structures under construction. In the absence of this, small-time builders and owners get away with substandard construction.

It is understaffing in the engineering wing that has come in the way of the GHMC fulfilling its statutory role.

The engineers available are themselves busy in civic works, and little time is available for other duites such as structural assessments. Nevertheless, the civic body, which collects large sums as building fee, is duty-bound to appoint adequate staff for the purpose.

After the tragedy at least, the GHMC should wake up to its obligations. An exclusive cell should be established to carry out random checks on quality of materials and works.

The policy of allowing construction of additional floors in lieu of land acquisition for road-widening is egregious.

Instead, the landowner should either be compensated at market value or an alternative site provided.

If the GHMC does not have enough structural engineers to check the stability of under-construction buildings, they should empanel more licensed structural engineers and avail themselves of their services.

Before collecting the building fee from the owners or the builders, the civic body should levy a fee of say Rs 2,000 per per floor for structural stability tests by the empanelled engineers.

Because of the huge investments involved, big builders and developers are taking precautions and extra care in getting their structures checked by empanelled engineers. The many newcomers foraying into construction would also do well to go in for third-party consultation on safety. As for the GHMC, it is not right to blame private parties, as it is collecting huge amounts from the end-user and so is duty bound to safeguard their interests.

And then there are some builders and developers who are misusing GOMs 86.

They first take up the construction and successfully get the mortgage released from the GHMC. After getting full control over the building, the owner/ builder takes up construction of additional floors in gross violation of permission and regulations.

Such violations happen only because the GHMC has failed in its duty of preventing them in the first place.