Team Herald
MARGAO: In light of the South Goa Sessions Court discharging 10 of the 11 accused in the Canacona Ruby Residency collapse case on Monday, will the recommendations of the one-man commission instituted to enquire into the case be implemented?
The government-appointed V K Jha Commission of Inquiry had fixed responsibility on almost all the accused in the case and also on the Canacona police. However, nothing is now being spoken about the report making it look like a mere exercise.
The commission had named developers of the project, Pradip Singh Birring and Jagdeep Kumar Sehagal, as responsible for the disaster, including the contractors and other material suppliers as the accused. Canacona police too was the ‘prime accused’ in the January 2014 Ruby Residency building tragedy for failing to act against the culprits in June 2012, when the building had collapsed the first time.
The Commission had recommended that a proper mechanism needs to be put in place to undertake periodic structural audit of existing buildings within five years of the issue of occupancy certificate.
“Had adequate steps been taken, the tragic incident that occurred on January 4, 2014 could have been averted,” the commission had observed.
However, most of the suggestions made by the V K Jha Commission are yet to be adopted in full.
Yet another observation of the report of blaming police and making them prime accused in the case also waits to be looked in as there needs to be the control of law enforcement on the hill cutting and land filling all over Goa for developing into mega projects for housing.
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai has gone on record claiming that the Post Occupancy Audit of buildings may be required soon.
Till date there are no records of any such audits done on new or under-construction buildings. The seriousness of this factor was revealed after the GEC committee in their report revealed that the standing structure in the same property was weak and was later order to be demolished.
It will now be interesting to see whether the government takes steps to adopt the report and make efforts to avoid such incidents in the future as there is a lot of development that is happening all over Goa in various terrains, some safe and some similar to the collapsed building.
