The damaged Lingaraj Market Complex, which has come under the civic body’s scanner. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 20: Municipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra inspected two unsafe buildings at Old Town yesterday and initiated a move to evacuate the occupants.

Mishra visited corporation-owned flats at Mulapadia and asked its residents to vacate the place within a month.

He also inspected the Lingaraj Market Complex and advised shop owners to relocate as the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation was all set to raze the complex.

“I have asked the residents of our flats at Mulapadia Colony to vacate the place as it’s in bad shape. They were told to vacate the houses within a month. If they fail to comply with the order within a month, I will ask our enforcement wing to disconnect power supply to the houses,” Mishra told The Telegraph.

The action from the civic body came after The Telegraph published a story on unsafe buildings in Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack on September 10. Four persons had died as a house collapsed in Puri on September 8. The dilapidated Puri building was being used as a makeshift lodge.

The corporation flats at Mulapadia were built during 1981-82. All the 12 flats in two blocks of the colony are in such a precarious condition that those can collapse any moment. “We were asked to vacate the house two years ago. But we could not as we did not have any alternative arrangement. Only four families have left. But, even they keep visiting us on a regular basis,’’ said a resident.

On the other hand, construction of the Lingaraj Market Complex started in 1985. Shops were handed over to traders in 1987. There are 102 rooms in the complex. While 100 rooms were rented to traders, the civic body uses two for running an office and storing chemicals such as bleaching powder for cleaning.

The report published in The Telegraph on September 10

“We pay a monthly rent of only Rs 192 to the civic body for each shop. If the authorities plan to demolish the structures, they should first consider rehabilitating us at a suitable place,” said Lingaraj Nayak, a shop owner.

Nayak added that the civic body never took any step to repair the market complex since it was built.

However, an official, who looks after the market, alleged that the shop owners were to be blamed for the complex’s poor upkeep.

“Whenever the civic body tried to start repair works in the market, the shop owners opposed. The even went to court and stalled the move,” he said.