JOIN US Age never came in Satya Achaiah’s way in her fight against the rampant building plan violations in her neighbourhood at Nandidurga Extension.
For the last five years, the septuagenarian has been running from pillar to post in vain, seeking action against builders and the BBMP officials who allowed six and seven-storey buildings to come up on 1,200 sq ft sites in her neighbourhood. Neither her struggle nor her age moved the BBMP officers to stop illegal construction in the area.
On Monday, Achaiah said, “The incident at Someshwaranagar was waiting to happen. Such incidents were required to wake up the BBMP administration from deep slumber. In the wake of the deliberate building plan violations right under the nose of BBMP engineers, the Palike administration will look into my complaints seriously.”
Following the Someshwaranagar incident, BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana has suspended two BBMP engineers for their laxity. However, he has the daunting task to initiate action against buildings violating town planning norms and the engineers who turned a blind eye to such structures.
Lakshminarayana told Deccan Herald that he would not spare any engineer for their callousness.
“Now, engineers who permitted illegal structures to come up should be ready to face action,” he said.
BMTF chief speaks
Considering the seriousness of the building plan violations, the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) had launched a crackdown two years ago and had booked a large number of Palike engineers for their laxity. However, it had to give up its drive, owing to stiff resistance from people in the government.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Dr R P Sharma, Additional Director General of Police (BMTF), said most of the buildings in Bangalore were in clear violation of the National Building Code. The code was conceived, keeping in mind its impact on neighbourhood, civic amenities and other resources, said Sharma.
He said, “We tried to address these issues with our limited resources, but we were faced with stiff resistance. The building that collapsed at Someshwaranagar was not the first. A similar incident had happened in the City a few months ago.”