Liquor store running from building under construction

In violation of norms, commercial activities continue in under-construction buildings even after a recent incident in which a woman died after the scaffolding of an under-construction mall fell on her.

Learning no lessons, a liquor vend was opened at an underconstruction multi-storey building at Feroze Gandhi Market. People have already started visiting the liquor vend, even as scaffolding is installed on its top storey, putting their lives in jeopardy.

The authorities have also been showing lackadaisical attitude towards the problem and no action has been to resolve it.

No safety measures are being followed to avoid such mishaps and the commercial activities are being allowed at underconstruction buildings.

However the MC officials claimed that without getting the required completion certificate, nobody could run commercial activities at any under-construction building. The sources on the other hand, said that there were many under-construction buildings where such commercial activities were on.

A resident, Ramesh Kumar, said, “Building bylaws should be similar for everybody. The MC officials should explain that how they gave permission to run this liquor vend when the construction of building is still on. The scaffolding has been installed on the top floor, which poses risk of any mishap. MC should ensure stopping of such activities until the completion of building, as it is the matter of safety of people.”

Assistant town planner Monika Anand said, “No commercial activity can take place if construction is going on at any building. I have recently taken charge as ATP of Zone-D, and I will look into the matter that how anybody can allow commercial activity without getting completion certificate.”

However, deputy excise and taxation commissioner Amrit Kaur Gill said if there
was an issue related to the building, it was not any policy violation.