Six injured in building collapse at Sahakarnagar

The injured are Asadullah (28), Kamadullah (20), Venkatesh (20), Manoj (21) and Hassan Sheikh (50). They were working at the site of construction of the club house belonging to Alpine Builders.

The Kodigehalli police have registered a case of negligence and are hunting for the absconding owners of the firm.

Inspecting the spot, the BBMP Standing Committee on Town Planning Chairman, M Nagaraj said the Alpine Builders were issued a notice earlier in January through the Byatrayanapura Joint Commissioner of the BBMP, for not obtaining the trade licence from the Palike.

Never bothered

“Since 1996, when they took the approval from the BDA, the builders never even bothered to take the trade licence. This is a serious breach of rules and regulations,” said Nagaraj.

“Had they heeded the notice and stopped construction, the accident would never have occurred,” said Nagaraj.

The Committee during inspection had found out that the building structure had not undergone ‘curing’. The BBMP has already registered a criminal complaint with the local police and has been providing medical relief to the injured.

Blaming the State government policy for not providing BBMP with powers to issue Occupancy Certificates (OC), Nagaraj said it prevented the Palike from inspecting the quality of construction.

“The State government policy to vest the powers with the BDA has been unfortunate. We are losing crores of rupees by way of not having the powers to issue OCs. Besides, the issual OC by the BBMP would also mean a preliminary inspection of the quality of construction from our Department,” argued Nagaraj.

With no rules and regulations framed for the safety of labourers, the civic agency has been caught in precarious situation of supporting the construction workers in the City.