Civic bodies told to act on unfit bldgs
Cooperative societies to be held responsible for structural audit, state says use police force if required
MUMBAI: The state government has directed municipal corporations to take strict action against buildings that are unsafe and dangerous to live in.
They have been asked to evacuate the buildings using police force if necessary and check if water and electricity supply can be disconnected to discourage people from staying in the dilapidated structures.
Chief secretary JK Banthia convened a meeting of municipal commissioners and key officials from the departments concerned on Tuesday evening. “Various government agencies including Mhada, BMC and PWD own buildings across the state and many of them are in bad condition. The government buildings which are uninhabitable will have to be evacuated on urgent basis, and even private ones that are in poor shape need to be evacuated. The municipal corporations have been directed to undertake eviction drives and provide alternate accommodation wherever possible,” Banthia said.
The cooperation department has been asked to identify cooperative societies of the buildings that are older than 30 years and make their structural audit compulsory. “There are 82,000 cooperative societies across the state, of which 42,000 are in Mumbai and its suburbs. We will identify the buildings older than 30 years and ask them to conduct the structural audit in a stipulated period. We are making it compulsory using the provisions in the by-laws in the co-operative societies act,” said Madhukar Chaudhary, cooperation commissioner.
It was also decided to bring uniformity of norms and parameters fixed by various government agencies for the structural audit.
“We have structural auditors empanelled by various government agencies, but norms vary. Agencies have been asked coordinate properly for uniformity and training of people involved in the audit. We have decided to engage agencies such as National Institute of Disaster Management to train officials,” said an official who attended the meeting said.