Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

vijay wrote:

Karnataka High Court has supported the demolition and has asked for names of officials who colluded to give clearances for such illegal constructions. Yes they should be punished as they have broken trust placed in them by the society.

They should be punished, as severely as possible. But is demolishing a 100 such buildings really so desirable?? Imagine the waste of money, resources and labour all that went into it.

Also the plight of all those people whose houses have been razed to the grounds.One old lady and her family were crying, saying that they still have not finished paying off the housing loan and that they have been prompt in paying the property taxes etc...How can the corporation take their taxes for years and then go and bring it down without giving them a chance ..Also what about the politicians and the builders who are behind the whole scam ?

vijay wrote:

Karnataka High Court has supported the demolition and has asked for names of officials who colluded to give clearances for such illegal constructions. Yes they should be punished as they have broken trust placed in them by the society.

Officials are only puppets who are control by others. Here is India mafia is active every where. Here is my city Three wheeler mafia, diseal smugler mafia, bookies mafia, drug mafia  and many more mafias are active. These are paying monthly to police and other officers and doing there work without any fear.

It does look sad that around 1800 houses have to be razed to ground fully or partially because they are built on storm water drains. It is not believeable that many of them were not aware that storm water drains were sold to them. Even when they are aware but the fact that illegally clearance has been obtained would have emboldened them to carry on with the deal as they would feel secure. It is good that an example is being set and storm water drains are being reclaimed. Please do not ask for mercy for the residents and dilute the efforts. In fact the officials and builders should be punished and movement to see that they are should be launched.

vijay wrote:

It does look sad that around 1800 houses have to be razed to ground fully or partially because they are built on storm water drains. It is not believeable that many of them were not aware that storm water drains were sold to them. Even when they are aware but the fact that illegally clearance has been obtained would have emboldened them to carry on with the deal as they would feel secure. It is good that an example is being set and storm water drains are being reclaimed. Please do not ask for mercy for the residents and dilute the efforts. In fact the officials and builders should be punished and movement to see that they are should be launched.

 

Your views are very relevant. I am sure you all must have read about the similar building called Campa-cola in Mumbai. Although there is no issue of storm drain involved there, but the building consists of too many floors which are illegally built. It had permission for only certain number of floors but since the demand for living space in Mumbai far exceeds from anywhere else, the builder raised the building illegally and sold flats to residents who, in spite of knowing this, bought them. Now for the last two years the Brihanmaharashtra Mumbai Corporation is trying to raze these floors down after giving the residents adequate notice. But the residents are all affluent and rich and have resorted to hunger strike and support from powerful sources. The issue goes on.

Once an illegal building is given recognition, the precedent sets in and such buildings keep being constructed and later on, residents try to cite a number of reasons. No one stops to think of them in the first place when buying illegal property. So I think, a hard and harsh decision should be taken for once but care also needs to be taken that such buildings are not constructed at all in the first place.

Unless it is clearly marked by the concerned authorities, a layman would not know where the drains are if they have already been covered. Added to that the city corporation had issues the necessary permissions required to construct the houses. Some of them were bought frm land owners and some are apartments built by the builders. Ultimately it is the poor house owners who suffer and never the builders not the politicians who favored the builders. Karnataka govt has been involved in every kind of scam possible and this is just one more ..