Collapse fear triggered exodus,saved many livesa

Just a day before the incident,one of those killed,Komal Nepali,had told a news channel in an interview that her family could not move out due to lack of money but admitted that staying on in the flat was dangerous. “We had approached the officials of the VUDA only four months back but they did not responded positively. Nobody ever came to repair the building,we are helpless,” she said.

Yet another resident,Mohan Padhiyar said that VUDA officials told them that they could not afford better house for Rs 65,000 – the cost of each flat allotted under the EWS scheme. “Which means we have bought our death for Rs 65,000,” he said. The families were given possession of the flats in 2002.

The building collapsed at around 4.30 on Wednesday morning,due to which residents of a nearby building vacated. The second building collapsed nearly half-an-hour later.

Under fire for turning deaf ear to the complaints of the residents,VUDA chairman N V Patel on Thursday said in a press conference that the new low income group (LIG) housing scheme of 3,000 flats that were announced recently will have tight quality control mechanism.

“We will test every single material before they are used and will involve a third party from a reputed company. We’d like to have excellent quality building materials even for an LIG. We’d try to make houses that won’t let residents feel like they’re living in a slum,” he said.

Patel said the project at Madhav Nagar was launched in 1999 and the completion certificate was received in July 2002,adding that planning and design by official architects were submitted to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation,which had approved of it,following which tenders were sought. Chief Minister Narendra Modi has announced a high-level inquiry committee headed by retired chief secretary Manjula Subramaniam to probe into the incident.