GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO: The Canacona building collapse tragedy has triggered a blame game, with officials as well as the builder-contractor duo engaged in the game of passing the buck and disowning responsibility for the collapse of the five storey structure.
If Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has pointed accusing fingers at the deputy Town Planner, Prakash Bandodkar (who has been arrested) for issuing the development permissions without chief town planner’s nod, the deputy town planner in turn has claimed that his role was only limited to passing of the plan within the prescribed limit of area under the law. Bandodkar has further claimed that his duty was not of a technical nature and has acted within the powers of law.
Take the case of then Canacona Municipal Engineer Ashank Naik Gaunkar. He has told the Special Court that his duty is based on the approval of plans from the Town and Country Planning to calculate the fees and recommend issuance of construction licence to the chief officer. “It is purely for the Chief Officer to issue construction licence,” Ashank told the court of Special Judge, even as he maintained that no construction had started during his tenure at the Canacona civic body.
The blame game did not stop there. What’s interesting to note is that the builder Ms Bharat Developers and Realtors have held the contractor responsible for the mishap. A perusal of the bail plea filed by Director Pradip Singh Birring revealed that he has sought to squarely blame the contractor Vishwas B Dessai for the incident. “The mishap has happened entirely due to the conduct of the contractor, who was actually carrying out work at the site,” Birring told the court.
On the other hand, the building contractor has maintained that officials of the Town and Country Planning department and the Municipal engineer had confirmed that he has completed the construction work after inspecting the site. That’s not all. Vishwas has claimed that the Canacona chief officer had issued the occupancy certificate based on the municipal engineer’s report, certifying that the construction was carried out as per the specification incorporated in the construction licence and was therefore fit for human habitation.
Special Public Prosecutor, Adv Rajiv Gomes has sought to exploit the blame game in favour of the prosecution to pin down the accused person. During arguments on the bail plea of contractor Vishwas B Desai, Adv Gomes drew the attention of Special Judge Nutan Sardessai to the accusations made by Pradip Singh Birring, Director of Ms Bharat Developers, blaming the contractor for the mishap.
