COLLAPSE OF LAW: BUILDING ILLEGAL
PASSING THE BUCK Day after it collapsed following massive fire, questions over how factory came up at all
The government departments and the municipal corporation of Ludhiana have failed to find any record granting permission to set up the plastic factory in the area. The government had recently admitted that hardly 20% of such structures have their plans approved. ››
LUDHIANA: It was unmissable at fives torey st all, and operating for a decade. Now, even after two full days of a plastic factory building having collapsed after a massive fire, government departments and the municipal corporation of Ludhiana have failed to find any recordbywhich itwasapproved to have been built at all.
Among those who have no record so far are the department of industries and the Punjab Pollution Control Board, (PPCB). And this is only symptomatic of a problem underlined recently by the government when it admitted that hardly 20% of such structures have their plans approved.
The building of Amarsons Polymers, known as Go la Plastic Factory, was surrounded by residential structures. Not only did the building have a weak foundation, but it was full of engineering defects. There was mud construction on the lower floor, and the pillars as well as the beams were not in proportion, sources said.
MC commissioner Jaskiran Singh and additional commissioner Vishesh Sarangal, who leads the building branch of the civic body, said that the MC has traced documents submitted by the industries department in 1974, in which area layout shows a factory. “The current owner may have purchased the factory afterwards. However, there are no details regarding any building plan and floors of the building in the documents.”
He underlined that five floors could have been established only if the owner had permission. “The officials have searched record still 2000 but not found any application.
The officials said the chief minister has marked an inquiry and all documents would be submitted with the divisional commissioner for that.
However, the responsibility to keep a check on illegal construction is also with the MC, and storage of chemicals is to be checked by the PP CB too. However, member secretary, PP CB, Pa wan Garg said the responsibility of keeping a check on storage of chemicals in a “factory” is with the director of factories: “PPCB has nothing to do with that.” General manager,
industries, Amarjeet Singh too said the responsibility of checking the building plan and storage of chemicals—which fuelled the fire in this case — is of the factories directorate.
But assistant director of factories, Sukhwinder Singh, simply said it does not come under the Factories Act as there were two ‘commercial’ establishments joined together from where the functions were being carried out. He said they talked to nearby factory owners and came to know that less than 10 workers were working in each establishment “so it comes under the Shop and Commercial Establishment Act ”.
The factory owner had not even got that registration done, it is learnt, which means the exact number of employees is not known.
As for whether or not the owner applied for fire safety certificate, officials from the MC wing said they are working on the rescue now and would be able to tell about that only later.
Area residents said “several complaints” were made to the MC regarding building violations but no action was taken “due to political pressure” and the “connivance” of building branch officials of the MC with the owner, Inderjit Singh.