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Cracks leave govt staff on tenterhooks Friday, March 2, 2001

AHMEDABAD: Haunted looks on faces, furtive glances at the walls and at the cracks and always on the toes. Nowadays not even the frantic calls of aayu, aayu is required to announce yet another tremor. Soon as the slightest vibration is felt everybody, from the babus to the sahebs, make a mad rush for the staircases and within seconds are out in the open gripped by the "me-first" rush.

In the aftermath of the quake, level of preparedness for once in certain government offices like the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is unprecedented, albeit for completely different reasons: The Republic Day quake has not only shaken up numerous high-rises of the city it has also left many buildings housing government offices, courts of law and hospitals in a poor condition.

The fallout of this is quite apparent: judges are forced to hold court at their residences, employees of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation are up in arms pressing for immediate relocation of premises while the corporation is looking at construction of a new building for head office, employees at hospitals run by the municipality go to work reluctantly with many portions of the buildings sporting quake-hit looks, even the Sachivalay at Gandhinagar has cracks as constant reminder for those who tread into the imposing building.

As for the AMC shift in premises, even though temporarily, is on the cards. AMC authorities will discuss on this matter with the state government on Friday to finalise the use of Old High Court premises for this purpose.

After repeated checks by structural engineers on the Sardar Patel building (head office of AMC in Danapit) certain portions of the over half-a-century old building were declared to be in the danger zone (G 5 category) and need to be pulled down at the earliest.

"Work to repair this building is on but about 150 employees have to be relocated from the severely damaged parts. We are looking at the Old High Court premises in Navrangpura as a possible alternative," said commissioner K Kailashnathan.

A 10-member strong delegation of the Ahmedabad Municipal Servants' Association had recently approached commissioner K Kailashnathan and deputy mayor Khemchandbhai Solanki demanding an immediate shift in workplace.

"The Sardar Patel corporation building is damaged and dangerous to work in. We cannot wait for another disastrous tremor to strike bringing down the roof on our heads," said general secretary of the association Dinkar Bhatt, adding, "Minor tremors including four big ones measuring 5.9, 5.3, 5 and 4.8 on the Richter scale have been felt in the city since the tremblor. We are no more sure that the old corporation building will hold up with such repeated tremors."

Not even such doubts are in the minds of the policemen housed in the Karanj Bhavan. Deputy commissioners of police Manoj Agrawal (zone II) and BS Jebalia (zone VI) who were assisting the investigating team in collection of samples of concrete of buildings fallen in the earthquake, evacuated their offices at Karanj Bhavan on January 26 itself.

The sturdy-looking, cement-finished Karanj Bhavan in Bhadra which houses the offices of two deputy commissioners, two assistant commissioners and the Karanj police station, shook hard enough to crack and Agrawal moved office to a PWD office in police headquarters while Jebalia moved to another PWD building in Kagdapith.

But the Karanj police station housed in the ground floor continues to function from the Karanj Bhavan. Additional commissioner of police (administration) SP Chitturi told TOI, "The building just has small cracks on the masonry walls which are now undergoing repairs". Chitturi emphasised that the building has suffered no major structural damage. He also confirmed that the building had been examined by the Police Housing Corporation which concluded that it could be used after repairs.

Shift focus to the hospitals and you see cracks yet again. The trauma ward of VS Hospital has got damages in its pillars and beams and its operation theatre had to be shut down for some time and patients had to be shifted to lower storeys for quake fear. At LG hospital the three-storeyed indoor ward building well of the lift has huge vertical cracks. The building had to be vacated after the quake and partial reoccupation began only on Thursday.

Damages in the nine-storeyed Mirzapur court complex has forced the judges to hold court at their residences. But, that's not all as Darshan Kinareewala, a lawyer, has filed a complaint against the municipal commissioner, state chief secretary and other government officials for overlooking flouting of norms during the construction and commissioning of the court complex.

 

This site is dedicated to our friend Younus M, who passed away on 28th Sept 00, and left on us an indelible memories ! - Team GujaratPlus.com

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