Haryana Government cornered on substandard material in high-rise buildings

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, March 21

Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal was at the receiving end of the Opposition’s verbal attacks during debate on the calling attention motion on use of substandard material in the construction of multi-storeyed buildings in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Dalal, who was replying to the motion on behalf of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds the town and country planning portfolio, was repeatedly cornered by the Opposition Congress and INLD members especially in the wake of the collapse of a portion of a building (Chintels Paradiso) in Gurugram resulting in two deaths.

The motion was moved by Charanjiv Rao and Neeraj Sharma, both Congress, and INLD’s Abhay Chautala.

Launching a scathing attack on the state’s apathetic attitude towards safety norms in high-rise buildings, Rao claimed that though a portion of Paradiso was declared “unfit” in 2021, no remedial action was taken, resulting in a tragedy in 2022.

Legislator from Faridabad Neeraj Sharma, while demanding a CBI probe into the building collapse, alleged that government agencies were trying to shift blame to one another.

Abhay Chautala claimed that though Dalal had virtually conceded the use of sub-standard material in the construction of the multi-storeyed buildings, the government was fighting shy of taking action against guilty officials.

Rakesh Daulatabad in whose Assembly segment Paradiso is located asserted that there was no provision of structural audit in the Haryana Building Code 2017.