The Tamil Nadu government on Friday, August 20 suspended Superintendent Engineer Anbazhagan and Assistant Engineer Pandiyan over the alleged poor construction quality of the newly built Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) flats in Chennai’s KP Park. This comes after those who were allotted flats at the tenements complained of quality and structural issues in the construction, including damaged staircases, cracks and chips in the walls, and broken pipes among others.
Tamil Nadu Minister for Rural Industries and Slum Clearance Board TM Anbarasan had on Thursday, August 19 said in the state Assembly that the state government would take action against those responsible – contractors and officials – for the poor quality of construction. “The Chief Minister will not hesitate to initiate stringent action against those responsible,” Anbarasan said.
The Minister also announced that the government has approached the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) to conduct a quality check of the flats at KP Park. The tenements at KP Park have 864 units built in Phase 1 of the project at a cost of Rs 112.60 crore between January 2018 and May 2019.
The Minister was replying to a calling attention motion moved by Egmore MLA I Paranthamen of the DMK, who sought criminal proceedings to be initiated against former Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK co-ordinator O Panneerselvam for the poor construction. OPS was the Slum Clearance Board Minister during the AIADMK regime. Paranthamen also demanded that the state government review all buildings constructed during the AIADMK’s rule, pointing to the partial collapse of the under construction medical college building in Namakkal in October 2020, and cracks in the newly built check dam in Villupuram in January this year.
The construction company behind the KP Park tenements has denied allegations of sub-standard work, stating that the flats were built only after the approval of the TNSCB and Anna University’s Department of Structural Engineering. The company alleged that the staircase was damaged when the building was converted into a COVID-19 care facility. It also alleged that residents who had not been allotted a flat at the tenements had ransacked the place, damaging the building. The company also warned of defamation suits against those who damage his firm's reputation.
Meanwhile, NGO Arappor Iyakkam demanded registration of an FIR against the officials of the TNSCB and the contractor who had built the residential apartments at KP Park, for the alleged poor construction. Demanding a probe against the former Chief Minister and AIADMK Coordinator O. Panneerselvam's role, it also said that the poor quality should be documented and the FIR registered before any repair work is done.
Arappor Iyakkam alleged that the engineer responsible for quality and the third party responsible for quality adherence by giving a certificate shows collusion with the building contractor. NGO Convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said that the TNSCB, till date, has not divulged the name of the contractor, name of the third parties appointed to check and certify the construction quality, completion report and payment details to the contractor.
He also said the structural stability and the building quality should be checked by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M). If the structure is unsafe, then all the buildings should be razed and new ones should be built so that fatal accidents could be avoided in the future, Venkatesan said.
With IANS inputs