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Journalism of Courage
TWO days before the Gujarat High Court heard a contempt petition in a case pertaining to unauthorised constructions in the state, a Cabinet meeting was summoned hurriedly to approve just one item: an ordinance to sweep all illegal constructions under the carpet.
The ordinance, which was issued and approved by the Governor the next day, levied a small fee called an ‘impact fee’, for regularising both commercial and industrial illegal structures in all six major towns of the state. The ordinance also effectively bailed out guilty officials, who had allowed such illegal structures to come up, and who could have been hauled up by the courts.
The ordinance regularised unauthorised constructions; even extra floors and illegally built penthouses. The government boasted that the ‘‘measure’’ would help generate a revenue of over Rs 200 crore which would be utilised on other ‘‘developmental activities’’.
Conceding that several buildings were constructed in contravention of regulations, the government pleaded that ‘‘administratively, removal or pulling down of a large number of buildings is neither feasible nor desireable’’ and that it was ‘‘fraught with the possibility of creating law and order problem and hardships to the people’’.In Ahmedabad alone, the government had identified no less than 9,200 cases of illegal constructions. Nearly 200 more cases cropped up soon after the ordinance was promulgated. Interestingly, the ordinance also had the support of the Congress.
The earthquake of January 26 has exposed people to the dangers of such constructions. For instance, the Mansi high-rise, which housed nearly 40 victims, had a swimming pool on the tenth floor. A part of the penthouse was extended unauthorisedly by 16 feet. It is believed that the extension fell off due to the earthquake’s impact, dragging down an entire block with it.
A disturbing pattern that has emerged out of the rubble is that almost all the buildings that suffered severe damage at Ahmedabad were constructed over the last five years. While, there has been virtually no damage to century-old buildings in old parts of Ahmedabad.
The rash of constructions during the last five years was directly related to the boom in the share market. All rules and regulations were thrown to the wind in the anxiety to invest in real estate. ‘Builders’ emerged overnight; many of whom had little to do with the construction business and were acting as financiers to contractors.
In Ahmedabad, thousands of apartments were lying vacant even as more and more structures were coming up. According to real estate agents, the saturation caused a steep decline in the sale and rental values. Two-room flats were available for Rs 3-4 lakh and three-room accommodation could be purchased for anything between Rs 5-9 lakh. ‘‘It was the cheapest in the country, keeping in mind the size of the city’’, says Mansukhbhai Patel, who has been in the business for the last 15 years.
Of late, builders had been offering heavy discounts and sops like free furnishings and furniture to attract buyers. Evidently, residents from other places, particularly Mumbai, were hoping that there would be a pot of money waiting at the end of the recession.
The local administration was oblivious to this building boom. There are scores of buildings which came up without any kind of permission, and being built with sub-standard material. It was an open secret that several officials and elected corporators of the local municipal corporation turned builders on the sly and opened up firms in the names of their relatives.
This builder-politician-bureaucrats’ nexus cut across party lines to help each other out in their common cause. Nothing could underline this more than Surendra Patel, the chairperson of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). He’s a political appointee, the treasurer of the state unit of the BJP and better still, a builder himself!
Little wonder then that in the areas under Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, about 200 of 450-odd buildings do not have Building Use (BU) permission. In areas covered by AUDA, hardly 25 of the 200-odd buildings have bothered to take BU-permission. Besides, shops were constructed in cellars and ground floors meant for parking, extra floors were built and passages covered.
All this prompted the Gujarat High Court to take the government to task when a case pertaining to a high-rise in a posh commercial area in Ahmedabad came up for hearing.
It ordered demolition of a part of the structure and soon took up the issue of illegal constructions in the city.
It pointed out that it was difficult to believe that unauthorised construction would go unnoticed ‘‘and even if it has gone unnoticed, it is either either negligence or connivance with the builders’’. The court went on to comment on the “failure on the part of the officers of the Corporation (AMC) in discharging their duties’’.The court subsequently asked the AMC to take speedy action against illegal constructions.
It also passed some specific directives, but officials dithered. It was then that the court had issued contempt of court notices, which prompted the government to rush through with the ordinance.7
