Hyderabad: We can’t protect every life, say civic officials

Hyderabad: Field staff has largely ignored the directive of GHMC commissioner M. Dana Kishore to identify dilapidated structures and ask property owners to either strengthen or demolish them.

This was starkly highlighted by the death of a child when the roof of his house collapsed on him in Sitaphalmandi on Sunday.

Asked about the incident, corporation staff washed their hands off. They said that the GHMC could save every life and be blamed for every incident in the city.

GHMC field staff identified 786 dilapidated structures this year.  According to the official report, 51 of these structures pose a grave threat to residents. Goshama-hal leads in the list with 152 structures followed by Begumpet with 116. Karwan has 45 dilapidated structures, and the list includes Malakpet (40), Hayatnagar (26), Saroornagar (6), Santo-shnagar (5) Uppal and LB Nagar (4 each) and Kapra (2).  

Immediately after the building collapses in Mumbai and Pune, Mr Kishore held a review meeting and alerted field staff to either demolish the dilapidated structures or ask the owners to repair them.

Secunderabad zonal commissioner C.N. Raghu Prasad, speaking about Sunday’s collapse, said that the corporation could not identify the structure because it was constructed behind a building in Veeraiah Galli. He said that the collapsed portion had been constructed with lime mortar. He said that the front portion abutting the road had an RCC slab and the second room was constructed with a jack arch (Madras terrace roof). He said that the front portion was 12 years old but it was difficult to calculate the age of the collapsed portion. The residents were tenants staying there for the past eight years.

“An unnecessary hype has been created over the incident as life loss is common in any roof collapse.  Just because the property tax was paid by the owner on house number 12-10-340 in Veeraiah Galli the GHMC cannot be blamed and will not take responsibility,” he said.

The corporation has demolished about 380 dilapidated structures and another 400 buildings have been posing grave threats to residents living in them.