A portion of the slab of the Mormugao Municipal Council ( MMC) Market came crashing down on Monday afternoon. It fell on the roof of a shop and no injuries or losses to life and property were reported. Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar speaking to reporters has said that he will now raise the long-pending issue of demolition of unsafe buildings in the upcoming assembly for a solution considering the safety of the occupants and residents in and around such unsafe buildings in Vasco.
Salkar said that in the past, the MMC had called a meeting of all the owners and residents of dilapidated buildings but the owners were not willing to vacate the premises
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” I advise the people to vacate these buildings immediately and we can find a solution where in occupants can get a flat or a shop because if the building collapses, there will be no life and it will not only affect the residents but also people moving around these buildings. It’s time to take strict action and if the people don’t vacate, then the authorities must take up the demolition and put the cost on the occupants ” said Salkar
Salkar said he would raise the issue of the demolition of dilapidated buildings in the upcoming assembly.
” There was no parking facility in old buildings and today if we demolish an old building and take up a new one, we have to have parking and other facilities and hence a person with 100 sq mtrs area could get only 30 to 50 sq mtrs area and owners are not ready. We have to find q solution and probably increase the FAR of the area or give additional benefits to the owners so that this issue is resolved because a person’s life is very important and we cannot afford to wait till a building collapses ” Said Salkar
Salkar said that he has already sent in a letter yet again to the MMC Chief Officer to take action on dilapidated buildings ahead of the monsoon, fearing that there could be a catastrophe.
“Since the time I was a Councillor I have been sending letters to MMC and requesting them officially to take up the issue of various dilapidated buildings in Vasco, some of which are MMC properties and some are private buildings which are on the verge of collapsing. These buildings have lived their life and for some of the buildings that we can take care of, we must start either demolition or vacate people. A building outside the police station is dilapidated and many people go there on a daily basis action needs to be taken immediately because we can have a tragedy in the monsoons.. The MMC must at least act on the municipal buildings immediately for the safety of the residents ” said Salkar
Vasco ward councillor Shami Salkar said that it was fortunate that the slab portion collapsing in the market occurred in the afternoon and did not cause any injuries to anyone or loss of life and property
” We have seen many dilapidated buildings in Vasco city itself which are in a very bad condition. This incident in the market is an eye-opener and I have asked the MMC Chief Officer to start serving notices because we cannot keep quiet for long. In case people don’t agree and don’t respond to notices, we may have to take the demolition and incur the cost on the residents and occupants because many buildings and slab portions of dilapidated are likely to collapse in the monsoons ” said Salkar
Meanwhile, social activist Kiran Naik said that it was time for the MMC Chief officer to take action as an estate officer and take legal steps to heavily penalise the owners and occupants of unsafe buildings for not having taken any steps for the safety of the people in and around the dilapidated unsafe buildings.
