Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the collapse of the 12-storey building at Porur, a Chennai suburb, on June 28 resulting in 61 workers losing their lives. The order comes in the backdrop of demand by DMK leader M Karunanidhi that a CBI enquiry should be held to find out the people and cause behind the collapse of the building which was under construction. Jayalalithaa has already instituted an enquiry by a one-man commission led by a former judge of the Madras High Court.
The order constituting the SIT comes at a time when charges have been made against certain politicians including a Minister in the AIADMK-led Government for violating norms and procedures for granting approval for constructing commercial and residential buildings. Sources in the Government Secretariat said many a heads are about to roll in the coming weeks in connection with the crash of the building. What has added to the gravity of the situation is the death of 11 workers from Andhra Pradesh on Sunday in Tiruvallur near Chennai following the collapse of a wall under construction.
The incident is the fallout of rampant corruption and lethargy prevailing in various Government departments dealing with approval and clearances for construction of multi-storey buildings, according to sources in the construction business as well in the Government.
Though officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Directorate of Town and Country Planning are tight-lipped over the incident, people familiar with construction industry allege that a cartel of bureaucrats and politicians call the shots in getting plans approved, of course for a major ‘cut’. This has resulted in many construction companies violating rules to suit their convenience.
“The owner of the company constructing the Porur building is a benami. All laws in the land had been violated and all the certificates and documents had been fabricated. I do not think the original owner would ever be brought to book,” MG Devasahayam, former bureaucrat and member of the Madras High Court appointed monitoring committee to check violations by builders of commercial and residential buildings in Chennai told The Pioneer.
He said the site where the ill-fated building was being constructed was in the catchment area of the Porur lake, one of the major sources of drinking water to Chennai. “Though the company had the approval to build only a six-storeyed building, they went ahead and constructed a 12-storey structure. This speaks volumes about the kind of goings on in the CMDA,” said Devasahayam.
He also said that urbanisation in Tamil Nadu has degenerated into real estate business and is being run on black money except by a miniscule fraction of corporate builders. The truth is that most of the builders ignore soil tests and detailed structural design report with drawings and stability certificate which are pre-requisites for letter of approval from the agencies.