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| October 21, 2005 | Friday | Ramzan 16, 1426 |
Occupants say govt buildings unsafe to live
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Occupants of many government residential buildings in Islamabad have said the houses have become unsafe after the October 8 earthquake. They complained that the Capital Development Authority had taken no remedial action despite being informed about the condition of the buildings. Students of Air University said the building of their hostel in the vicinity of Margalla Towers had become quite dangerous for living.
Some of the students told Dawn that deep cracks had appeared in the structure and the walls vibrated even with a gentle push with the hand. “The cracks are so wide that one can see across them,” the students said.
The hostel established in a private multi-storeyed building in F-10 Markaz houses about 100 students. “The building was already in poor condition, but it became dilapidated after the earthquake,” they said. The students said they had drawn the attention of the university management towards the condition of the building, but to no avail.
“After the earthquake, the vice chancellor visited the building and ordered the closure of the hostel for a few days.” After the closure of the hostel, the students went to their home towns and returned on Sunday. “When we returned, we saw that the cracks had been temporarily filled and concealed with a fresh whitewash,” the students said.
They said the owner of the building had also visited the building and claimed that the CDA had conducted a survey of the structure and termed it safe for living.
GOVERNMENT QUARTERS: Residents of government quarters in sector G-6 have also complained about dilapidated condition of their houses and lack of attention by the CDA.
They said most of the inhabitants had been requesting the CDA to repair the houses, but the CDA Director General Services Jehanzeb Khan had turned down the requests.
“The DG told us that he had no funds for the repair of the houses and whenever the CDA arranged funds, the problem would be addressed.”
They said the CDA did not distribute the funds allocated for the repair of houses equally, because in case of any complaint by higher officials, the major chunk of the amount was utilized on their houses, leaving very meagre funds for the quarters allotted to low-salaried employees.
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