A day before the Chennai Silks fire, the High Court appointed Monitoring Committee had met for the 61st time. As always, it discussed at length the T.Nagar building violations and the impediments to enforcement. The 62 “unauthorised buildings” in T. Nagar had flouted development regulations, particularly with reference to Floor Space Index, and therefore action had to be taken, especially since the Smart City project had been taken up in T. Nagar.
Government officials, who are part of the monitoring committee, were absent, except for the CMDA Vice Chairman and Housing and Urban Development secretary D.P. Yadav. The committee comprises six government officials and six non-officials.
FSI was only one aspect of the violations. “In Ranganathan Street, if the CMDA goes by rules then no multi-storey building should exist,” says a former member of the committee. Otherwise, the government can sleep on the violations till something terrible happens, he says.
CMDA officials say that any decision to demolish the unauthorised buildings has to be taken by the government, at the Chief Minister’s level. “CMDA officials at the committee meetings did accept that there were violations but said they were helpless as the government has to take the decision,” says M. G. Devasahayam, a former IAS officer and a committee member.
Since no decision had been forthcoming from the government, the official members of the committee, including the Chennai Corporation Commissioner and the Director of Fire and Rescue Services Department, had stopped attending the meeting after a while, sources said.
A. Srivathsan, a former member of the monitoring committee, said that a thorough fire safety audit should be taken up and penal provisions have to be tightened in case of violations.
