Hyderabad: The Filmnagar tragedy could have been avoided had the cooperation department, state government and GHMC taken stringent action against irregularities in the cooperative housing society.
The House panel headed by Mr A. Ramesh set up in 2014 has met just thrice, and visited the Filmnagar and Jubilee Hills Coop Society once. The panel prima facie had found irregularities on the ground as per the report submitted by senior cooperation department official N. Kiranmayee.
Mr Ramesh said the the panel had received reports of irregularities from GHMC officials and they were being scrutinised. “We found certain irregularities which matched the inquiry report. We will meet soon and speed up the probe,” he said.
Panel member and Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy sought the arrest of the managing committee members of the club and the society. “The society should be scrapped and a special officer appointed till action is taken against them. The House panel was supposed to meet today but it was postponed for a week,” he said.
He alleged that a powerful lobby had prevented action against the society, cultural centre and club during the tenure of previous governments. Why is Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao hesitating to take action, he said.
Dr Kiranmayee had earned the wrath of bigwigs and her own colleagues and was shunted out to Warangal before being brought back to the city. Though she had exposed irregularities including illegal conversion of park/playground for the centre in 2011, the government has failed to act.
Centre didn’t have permit
Assistant city planner Shekar Reddy and section officer Mallesh-war of GHMC’s Jubilee Hills circle were suspended for failing to identify the illegal construction at the Film Nagar Culture Club.
A portion of cement was replaced with fly ash, which is cheaper. This reduced the price by a fourth but affected the durability and strength of the structure that led to the collapse.
According to GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy, the club had started construction of a portico without applying for permission. The slab for the portico was laid on the night of July 23. It collapsed the next day when workers were finishing the work, resulting in the death of two persons and injuries to eight.
GHMC has filed a complaint with the Banjara Hills police to initiate criminal action against the management of the club and the contractor. JNTU has been asked to give a report on the cause for the collapse and the condition of the club building.
