A crash that shattered their dream home!

C Shivakumar
Chennai:
Lives in the neighbourhood in Rajaraja Nagar and Thangaraja Nagar have been altered in the last two years after the collapse of 11-storied building that snuffed out 61 lives of workers.

As candles flickered at the closed entrance of the surviving partially constructed 11-storied building in Moulivakkam marking the second anniversary of one of Chennai’s worst building crash, residents consider the building as eyesore that has shattered their dreams and put them into misery.

“Why is it still surviving. I can’t access my home as it has been considered unsafe due to fears that the building would collapse,” says Mary, who has bought a house for Rs 52 lakh and gifted it to her son-in-law.

“I invested everything including my entire life saving. We lived here for two years when the tragedy happened. Luckily, we all had gone shopping on that day,” recalls Mary.

Now her son-in-law has lost job and the family which includes Mary’s two grandchildren is struggling to meet their ends. “Now we are living in rented premises. My son-in law doesn’t have a job as and we have defaulted on loan which we took for the house. The banks have been heartless and they are planning to auction our house. It looks like we won’t be able to own house again after losing my entire life saving,” said Mary.


Interestingly, Mary and her neighbours can’t enter their home as it has been barricaded by the cops. “We are considered alien in our homes,” says Abdul Khader, who had renovated his home which he had brought in the year 2000. I renovated it on 2012 and rented it out before moving out to rented apartment in Mandaveli. “I was getting Rs 7,000 as rent. This money was used to lessen the burden of my rent. Now for the two years, I am not getting any rent. As a result, my financial burden is addig up,” he says.

While it is not only the residents who live near the crash site has been affected, even children who were studying in a government school just next to the crash site are missing their school.

“We have been provided admission in the nearby government school where there is not enough space,” complains a student.

Interestingly, it is the shift system that is prevalent in the school. For students studying in 1st to fifth, the school timing is 9 to 1pm while for students above fifth standard, the timing is 2pm to 5pm, says Manohar. This would mean the students are lacking quality education.

Not only that, the flat owners feel they have been neglected in the whole process. “Nobody is talking about us,” says Ratna Mishra, who had brought a flat in the ill-fated building that collapsed. “The issue is conditional approval given by CMDA for a building which can’t take the weight beyond four floors. Isn’t it responsible for giving conditional approval,” she says.