The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, on Sunday, said that it would initiate criminal action against the owners of the building at Monda Market whose demolition led to the
death of 4 persons on Saturday.
In a statement, GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna Babu said that the building owners - Ajay Kumar Kataria, Nirmal Kumar Lalwani, Ashish Kumar Modi and Govind Kumar Modi - had demolished their premises without taking proper precautionary measures.
As per the provisions of the GHMC Act Section 433, every building owner who desires to demolish their building for any reason must obtain prior permission from the GHMC, with an assurance of safety measures.
"In this case, the owners have not taken any such permission, nor have they taken any safety measures with the assistance of technical expertise before the demolition of the structure. Hence, the GHMC is constrained to initiate criminal action against the said accused building owners," he said.
The Commissioner has asked all building owners desirous of demolishing their buildings, for the purpose of reconstruction or other reasons, to apply and take prior permission from the GHMC as per law.
Further, the permission for the construction of new buildings would not be entertained under normal provisions, in sites where the existing old buildings were removed without prior permission from GHMC, he said. (INN)