Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued notices to owners of 429 dilapidated houses of the city asking them to demolish the rundown buildings as they pose danger to their inhabitants.
Municipal commissioner Shivasharanappa GN on Friday convened a meeting with chief engineer SK Singh, zonal engineers and assistant engineers and asked them to issue notices to such house owners. According to KMC records, the city has around 723 rundown buildings in which more than 6000 people are living.
The city has reported several incidents in which people had died due to caving in of rundown buildings in every monsoon season.
Though notices had been served to the house owners, the KMC authorities have not taken any action so far. In most of the cases, rundown buildings are trapped in litigation. In some cases, engineers present reports that as the building has already completed its age it may cave in any time while in counter, tenants use to submit another engineer’s report that the building is still in good condition and it need not to be demolished.
The municipal commissioner had asked for a zone-wise list of dilapidated buildings. As per list, zone-1 has 222 rundown buildings, zone-2, 3 ,4, 5 and 6 have 6, 42, 120,18 and 21 such buildings, informed KMC officials. He asked the engineers to visit their respective areas and identify the rundown buildings. He has asked the officials to issue notices a second time and direct the owners to demolish the dilapidated buildings.
