Builder refuses to take responsibility

Residents stay put as deadline for vacating Maradu apartment units passes

The builder of one of the Maradu flats, Alfa Ventures, has attempted to wash its hands of the sticky situation in a letter to the Maradu municipal secretary even as the deadline for residents to vacate the flats passed on Sunday.

The builder of Alfa Serene, one of the apartment complexes facing demolition, replied that the flats were no longer its responsibility since the possession lay with the current owners, Maradu municipal secretary Mohammed Arif Khan said. The reply was in response to a notice served on the builders of all the four apartment complexes by the municipality. Alfa Ventures wrote that the notice should be served on the owners, to whom the flats were sold legally, rather than on the builder. The municipality had served notices on the residents last week asking them to vacate the flats by Sunday. Residents refused to budge.

To move court

The owners were planning to file a writ petition at the High Court on Monday challenging the notice, said Shamsudheen Karunagapally, president of the H2O Holy Faith Residents’ Association.

Further steps with regard to demolition and rehabilitation would be taken based on the directives from the district administration and the government, said T.H. Nadeera, municipal chairperson.

Rehabilitation

Sources close to the district administration said that prospective locations for the rehabilitation of around 400 families had already been identified, but the Maradu municipality had not yet provided them with a list of the number of families that would require rehabilitation. Further, rehabilitation would entail expenditure which would have to be met by the municipality, the sources said.

CPI(M) leader P.K. Sreemathy and Kerala Congress leader P.C. Thomas visited the flat owners on Sunday. A march at Maradu demanding a judicial probe into the issue will be flagged off by Congress leader Oommen Chandy at 9 a.m. on Monday.