Urban development and urban housing have been in the upswing for the last few years. Multistoried flats have come into existence. land prices have been hiked up by the Government in an artificial manner; even the agricultural fertile lands have now become the base for twenty-storied and thirty-storied buildings. It is true not only of Odisha but also equally of Delhi.
let us, therefore, begin with the experiences of Delhi as nations capital, as revealed through an audit of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) performance activities. The safety audit conducted by the authority has indicated the writings on the wall as a bomb about to explode. Further, the findings say most vulnerable areas going around speaking like firebombs without any regulatory control. Apart from this, regulatory failures of residents are often extending to seem to convert residential accommodation into commercial one. For example, residents are often being extending a single-room apartment to accommodate multiple bedrooms, and elaborate balconies are also constructed. Two-room sheds almost become “tent houses” that is not enough, even the grudges provided the space for commercial utilisation pushing their construction till the brim,
If we contrast this, the scenario in Odisha is still worse. The audit reports, one after the other, have revealed that the building regulations have been flagrantly violated, whether in urban areas or rural areas. The deviations from the law have permitted the growth of high-rise buildings, which could never satisfy the norms of law.
There is a concomitant requirement of sewage and water facilities which still go unregulated. These are all in violation of the prevalent laws. You cannot put an urban property on agricultural land on the pretext of having a tube-well or a bore-well. A travel from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar or vice versa demonstrates so cruelly that one wonders whether there is a regulatory mechanism at all.
In the meanwhile, a similar multi-storied building case has gone on for 19 years. The writer refers to the Uphaar fire tragedy. The fire tragedy victims of the Delhi Cinema Hall have been waiting for justice for 19 years. The unfortunate event took place on January 11, 1997. Sixty-nine persons died and over 100 were injured in the fire that broke out at the Uphaar Cinema Hall in Delhi. The CDI filed chargesheet against 16 accused, including Uphaar owner Gopal and Susil Ansal on November 15, 1997. In November 2001, the Delhi High Court framed the charges of culpable homicide causing death by negligence and violation of the Cinematography Act. On November 20, 2007, the trial court convicted 12 accused. and Ansal was given two years’ jail term. In December 2008, the High Court reduced Ansal’s sentence from two years to one year. On August 19, 2015, the Supreme Court allowed Ansal to walk free after paying a fine of Rs30 crore each for construction of a trauma centre in Delhi. In October 2015, the CDI filed a petition seeking review of the Supreme Court verdict. The Supreme Court agreed with the open court hearing to review the petition of AVUT and CDI.
This episode itself shows the slow pace of the justice delivery system in such matters. Now, come back to what was being discussed earlier. If the rising of the BDA flats is so alarming, the situation in Odisha is worse. The disastrous consequences will be much weaker and less efficacious. The confusion between the building regulation power of the municipal bodies and the development authorities continues to prevail in Odisha. We are in this dangerous situation of falling between the two stools without proper remedial measures. It is time, therefore, that a comprehensive study of these laws is made and the life and plight of the flat owners are not in jeopardy beyond repair.
The beneficiaries of the so-called high-rise buildings are the younger generation. They are in peril and they have to fight their own cause. We, in Odisha, are in a seismic zone, and it can be well-alleged that no multistoried building conforms to the requirement of the safety precautions meant for such a zone.
In this scenario, we are caught in the inaction of the Government and its instrumentalities. This also is true of many Government buildings. There is also a confusion regarding elected powers under the Constitution of India to the respective authority. It is dangerous to have the luring market in violation of the Constitutional mandate. It requires immediate attention because it involves public safety, including the safety of investment.
The need of the population is dominantly of the youths. They, therefore, must assert and demand their own rights. A roof on your head as a shelter is now recognised as a fundamental right. It is, therefore, imperative for the youths not to be guided by rampant maladministration or rampant commercialisation. It is for their own benefit that they must say that the law must be obeyed. This may be necessary to enforce this through public interest litigation. Ways and means for this can be well found out. No one needs to feel helpless unless threre is a tendency to surrender to the powers that be. When it comes to the basic need of life and survival, there is no question of compromises, and in this assertion of youth power for their basic need of survival and shelter, the elders have also to play their role considered in overall terms. This no doubt concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha.jayantdas@hotmail.com)