A two-storey building that is being constructed by the Janata Trust on Bengaluru-Mangaluru Road in Hassan collapsed on Tuesday. Nobody was hurt in the incident.
The under-construction building is coming up on the trust’s land. Hassan City Municipal Council has said the trust had not got necessary sanctions from the council for the portion of the building that collapsed.
Janata Trust is a body consisting prominent supporters of the Janata Dal (Secular). However, office-bearers claim ignorance of the construction activity maintaining that senior leaders of the JD (S) take care of it.
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Contradictory versions are emerging from the JD (S) camp regarding the collapse. While an office-bearer, on the condition of anonymity, maintained that the portion collapsed due to wrong handling of an earth mover on the construction site, others said it was demolished as per the instruction of senior JD (S) leaders to follow suggestions of Vaastu experts.
Illegal structure
When
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When asked why the CMC was silent all these days when the ‘illegal’ construction was going on, the Commissioner said: “They are all powerful people. Will they allow me take action against them? In the past also the trust office-bearers had got the CMC spend its money to divert an underground drainage line to help the trust,” he added.
Party office
The Janata Trust was sanctioned 15 guntas of land during Ramakrishna Hegde’s rule in 1980s. Later, additional land was sanctioned to the trust during the Janata Dal’s rule in the State. “The initial plan was to build an office for the party and a museum exhibiting the achievements of the party’s senior leaders. However, over the years, the plan changed. Interestingly, office-bearers of the trust are ignorant of what’s being built there,” a former office-bearer of the trust.
JD (S) leader H.D. Revanna is often seen visiting the building and inspecting the construction.