Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Monday, July 24, 2017.
A month after
four labourers died in a construction site at Pangappara after earth caved in,
district collector S Venkatesapathy has given instructions to officials to make
sure that any further construction activities at the site are conducted under
strict surveillance. In a review meeting held at the collectorate here on
Saturday, the collector said that at present city corporation is monitoring
construction of sidewall as a safety measure.
The collector
said that at present sand bags are being used as support structure and as soon
as corporation receives technical scrutiny report from CET, future works will
be taken forward.
The
unscientific land development at the site had caused earth to cave in during
heavy showers, leaving neighbouring residences at peril. Meanwhile, the
collector said that he was yet to look into the issue of development permit.
Two days after the accident, it became known that the builder had not obtained
the development permit as mandated by Kerala municipality building rules.
Documents obtained through RTI also showed that quarrying permit from
department of mining and geology was also not obtained by the builder although
extraction of earth went on for two years.
The official
report filed by district geologist had noted that the builder had only obtained
passes for removal of 3,000 cubic metre of earth. The site inspection after the
accident revealed that only 800 cu m had been removed. Although provisions
mandate that the applicant shall be fined penalty if he/she conducts extraction
of earth without quarrying permit from the department of mining and geology,
the report does not cite that any kind of penalty has been levied from the builder.
Officials
with department of mining and geology said that they were severely
short-staffed to deal with enormous number of applications for extraction of
ordinary earth and hence in most cases it becomes impossible to follow up. The
rules mandate that any kind of issuance of permit or licence shall be preceded
by site inspection, however, with applications for extraction of red earth
piling up, the office of the district geologist is ill-equipped to conduct
proper monitoring, making way for parties undertaking large scale construction
works to indulge in land development sans any safety norms.