While commenting about Wednesday’s fatal building collapse in Triplicane and unauthorised constructions, former IAS official and member of the monitoring committee that decides on unauthorised constructions, Mr Devasahayam said that there was no fear of the law among people. Law enforcing officials worked hand-in-glove with law-breakers and in such a situation how could one expect them to abide by the law?

The previous government had promulgated an ordinance to save illegal buildings facing the hammer thus protecting violators. Building violations take place in front of field officials and builders know that
they can get away by bribing officials. If a junior official is unwilling, the builder will approach his senior, he said, adding “Primarily, there is no fear of the law among citizens, unlike in many foreign countries.”

Like the ill-fated Triplicane house, several hundred buildings in the city are perilously waiting to collapse, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of law enforcers. Experts have urged the Chennai corporation and CMDA to review the safety of old buildings, particularly in cramped Triplicane, Royapettah, Thousands Lights, Royapuram, and Purasaiwalkam and Perambur areas.

“The Corporation Act empowers authorities to ask an owner to vacate or pull down a structure they consider unsafe or unfit for occupation,” a CMDA official said, adding, “CMDA came into existence only in 1974 and most buildings under its purview were constructed after that.” corporation officials said that they could only issue notices to old buildings and it was impossible for them to inspect every house in town.

Civic body to enumerate old buildings

The city corporation on Wednesday alerted all zonal officials to conduct field inspections and enumerate the number of dilapidated or old buildings coming under their zones.

In case of private buildings, it is the duty of the property owners to take care of the structure, but considering public welfare, the zonal officers have been directed to ascertain the number of old buildings, corporation commissioner D. Karthickeyan said.

“In several cases whenever there are public complaints the corporation has served showcause notices for old buildings. Even recently a huge private compound wall in Choolai was demolished after the property owner failed to respond to the notice.

There is no direct provision to demolish the private buildings, but if there are specific complaints the issue can be sorted out”, explained an engineer of zone 5.

Pneumatic bag helps save trapped woman

Though the rescue team, led by DFO Meenakshi Vijayakumar, was not sure of using all the modern equipment during the rescue operation because of the unstable nature of the building collapse site at Triplicane, hydraulic pneumatic bags helped to lift and roll a big boulder under which Bharathi was trapped.

“Unlike her son Parathasarathy, who was taken out first by our team, Bharathi was trapped under a big boulder which we lifted using pneumatic bags.

The bags are designed in such a way that once air is pumped in, they will be able to lift heavy weights,” said the DFO who supervised the rescue operation.

The mother and son were trapped under nearly six feet of debris.

They were luckily ‘covered’ by a huge slab that fell over them. “It was Parthasarathy who responded to our calls. He told us to inform his father, who was waiting outside, that he and his mother were safe,” the official added.

Though we had hydraulic cutters, drills and jacks, we were not sure of using them because of the unstable condition there. So, we decided to use regular equipment to cut and reach the victims.

“Any wrong move from our side could make the entire thing collapse further, endangering the life of the two trapped persons. We decided to go slow and that’s why it took a long time to take them out,” she noted.

Ms Vijayakumar also noted that Bharathi, a government employee, and her son, a computer engineer, had not suffered any fracture and that the two responded well during the rescue operation.