Team Herald
VASCO: Residents of the Desterro apartment building at Baina escaped unhurt when a part of Chajja (a concrete portion) on the ground floor crashed in the wee hours of Monday.
Taking cognisance of the incident, the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) has now decided to issue eviction notices to the occupants of the building.
According to eyewitness, the incident was reported on Monday around 5 am when the portion of Chajja crashed causing panic among the residents of the Desterro apartment.
It may be recalled that the Desterro building is one of the many residential and commercial buildings in port town which have been identified as unsafe. Despite the prevailing situation, people still continue to occupy these structures thereby put their lives at risk.
According to MMC Municipal Engineer, Manoj Arsekar, after receiving directions from the MMC chairperson Deepak Naik via telephone, he along with other municipal staff visited the site and found that the old building occupied by the people is unsafe as the structural steel bars were seen exposed.
He said that he would submit his report to the higher-ups for further directions.
“Today’s incident was reported early morning at about 5 am and luckily no casualties were reported. We have already conducted an inspection of the said building and have decided to issue eviction notices to the dwellers occupying this unsafe building. In Vasco, there are many such unsafe buildings that we have already surveyed and have even issued eviction notices to the people residing in such buildings. Similarly, there are quite of few MMC owned buildings, which are unsafe and thus we have already issued eviction notices to the dwellers of these unsafe structures’ said MMC Chief Officer Deepali Naik.
Meanwhile, the residents of port town claimed that the MMC has been issuing eviction notices but later drags its feet to take appropriate action.
They also claimed that since the issue of unsafe buildings in the port town is a serious one, instead of issuing notices, the MMC should now take serious steps to ensure that occupants of these buildings are evicted as soon as possible.
