Port Blair, Jul 21: On 15th Sep 2012 due to heavy rainfall, one landslide incident took place at Duganabad area in Ward No-12 in the land bearing survey no-2760 owned by Mr. Hardayal Singh which led to his retaining wall sliding away towards the house of Mr. T. Subramaniam on land, bearing survey no-2758.
After the sliding of the wall on Mr. T. Subramaniam’s house, the family members approached several authorities for getting help to remove the retaining wall from their house, for which the newly constructed house of Subramaniam developed dozens of cracks. But sadly even after nearly one year the half-collapsed retaining wall has not been removed by authorities, which is now posing serious risk to the family of T Subramaniam.
Mr. T. Subramaniam and his daughter Miss. Sangeeta approached many authorities viz DC, South Andaman, Director, Disaster Management, Secretary, PBMC, SHO, P.S Aberdeen, Lt. Governor, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ward Councillor, Ward No-12, PBMC, MP, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Relief Commissioner, Andaman and Nicobar Islands but their efforts has yielded any result yet.
Finally, Mr. T. Subramaniam, filed a petition in the court of SDM, South Andaman after which a conditional order was issued from the Court on 11 Feb 2013, which clearly ordered Mr. Hardayal Singh to remove the old retaining wall and to construct a new one. But still the retaining wall has not been removed or repaired till now, much to the dismay of Subramaniam’s family.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Ward Councillor of Ward Number 12, Mrs. Vani Raja she said that as the work of repairing and removing the said retaining wall is personal work, it doesn’t come under PBMC’s purview.
“This is a problem between two parties and hence PBMC can’t carry out this personal work with PBMC’s fund or else tomorrow dozens of more families will approach PBMC for such works. PBMC allocates Rs. 20 Lakhs for every ward for carrying out various works viz construction of footpaths or retaining walls. This work alone costs nearly 18 to 19 lakhs and hence even if PBMC desires to construct the retaining wall as an especial work, the PBMC doesn’t have sufficient funds,” Mrs. Raja told Andaman Sheekha.
She said that recently the Executive Engineer of PBMC had visited the site and submitted a report to the Deputy Commissioner mentioning these points.
“Another point is that this is a very specialized work for which PBMC doesn’t have expertise. Of Course, APWD may carry out this work, as an especial case, as APWD has both expertise and funds. When such works were done by APWD in past, why can’t APWD carry out this work now? Hence, the Administration must direct the APWD to come for the rescue,” she added.
There are dozens of versions of this story and hundreds of excuses but the fact is that both the families of Mr. T Subramaniam and Mr. Hardayal Singh are living under the threat of a major disaster as another land slide in their plot means total collapse of two buildings and death of atleast dozens of people.
Hope the Administration wakes up before such disaster as there is a provision under which the DC can direct the APWD to repair and construct the retaining wall and funds could also be allocated from Disaster Managements budget. Hope atleast this time the Administration will act before a major disaster.
