It’s been almost two and a half years since the infamous Ruby Residency collapse and parts of the wreckage around the site can still be seen and it takes you back to the horrific sequence of events that unfolded on January 4, 2014.
Around the site where the building had collapsed are the neighbouring buildings that are still in a bad dilapidated shape with no coat of paint. In some places the bare red bricks on the wall can be seen. Even when the then chief minister Manohar Parrikar had visited the site he had initially ordered for these buildings to be demolished but reversed the order later.
However, the neighbouring residents feel that a thorough inspection should have been done to assess the fitness of the building.
They wonder how the government and Canacona Municipal Council have turned a blind eye to the matter after the furore that surrounded the official ‘state’ disaster.
“When there was a study done by a team from the Goa Engineering College to look into why the building had collapsed, the report had raised concerns about the structural stability of the neighbouring buildings. Why has the government ignored this,” said Shankar Naik.
It is to be noted that the report submitted by commission of inquiry into the tragedy citing the reasons for the collapse of phase II of the project had cited – poor conceptual designs, inherent faulty structural design and defective execution of work at the site and other factors led to the collapse of Ruby Residency in Canacona. (see adjoining report)
The commission headed by VK Jha as chairman and, among others, KG Guptha, head of civil engineering, Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi had been entrusted with the task of finding out the immediate and proximate causes and determine the circumstances and sequences leading to the building collapse. In a damning statement, the report had called the tragedy, ‘a sad commentary on the negligent acts of commission or omission on the part of building owners, Bharat Developers and Realtors Private Limited represented by their directors, responsible for structural safety of the building’.
Incidentally Shankar, who lives near the Ruby Residency property still has to deal with the debris that landed in his property during the time of the disaster and subsequent evacuation. As the state machinery and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had issues with access from the main entrance, they had to enter from the back entrance. Due to this, a portion of the apartments located at the back and the area were cleared to allow the rescue workers to remove the bodies and debris from the area.
Shankar had served a legal notice to the CMC four years before the building collapse and had raised several concerns including the access to the site. These included the problems and concerns the people in the surrounding areas would face due to the ancestral pathway being blocked causing damage to the residential houses in the vicinity. Furthermore, they had pointed out that due to the cutting of the mountain and ‘black rock’, the water that would flow through the nullah and chamber below the NH-17 had been blocked.
“When these issues were raised I was brushed aside even though two years before the incident a slab of the under construction building collapsed (killing four labourers). Right now there are no proper setbacks left behind. The issues of the drainage that has been blocked has not been solved and who knows if the other buildings will collapse,” added Shankar.
Other residents in the area point out that they had a study had been done by scientists including those from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) after there were floods in Canacona which had stated that no ground plus two structures should come up especially in the hilly areas but the report has been buried and there are even ground plus 5 structures coming up in Canacona.
Another resident Ramesh Dessai pointed out that the builders of Ruby Residency are constructing another project in Canacona that needs to be checked in light of the glaring discrepancies involved in granting permissions and licences to Ruby Residency.
Against this backdrop, there is also a superstition angle to the entire fiasco and this has been what many of the locals have believed since the incident took place. The abode of ‘Korpana’ (devil) was where Ruby Residence stood and the hill was known as the Korpadongor. They believe that the disaster was caused by the anger of the Korpanas due to the destruction of the hillock where offerings were made to the Korpanas. They also talk about the rock called Pandava Paul where they could see the feet of the legendary Pandavas.
Superstitions aside, a teacher in the area Akaplita Dessai felt that there was no study of the geopathic stress below the earth surface and that the area was not suitable for development and human habitation leave alone mega construction sites and that there is a need for proper analysis of these areas before permissions are given for construction.
