Recently, I watched an interesting video on social media. The video was about a girl being asked to pronounce the word A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-L-E correctly. The girl doesn’t get the right pronunciation in her several attempts. At the end of the exercise, the girl is taught the right pronunciation and also the meaning of the word. Afterwards, the girl confesses that she had never heard of anything like “accountable”.  Whatever might have been the purpose of creating that video, I would take it in a very serious sense. Of course, I have in mind the prevailing Indian conditions. Something we don’t hear of often is “being accountable” or “taking responsibility”.

To highlight the state of affairs, I am presenting a case study. It is about the collapse of an under-construction building very recently in Hyderabad. The collapse killed two workers and injured several more persons. All the related important information can be found in the figure below.

The building had no permission. However, the civic authorities, mainly the officials of Cyberabad Municipal  Corporation (CMC), were aware of the construction activity. They had even given a stop-work order. But the construction activity continued. It is to be noted that construction activities are carried out in broad daylight and are not clandestine. Thus the builder had the tacit approval of the authorities to go ahead with his work.

CMC plunged into action the next day. Its actions are summarized in the figure below.

The authorities arrested the owner of the plot and were on the lookout for the contractor. More importantly, a large number of violations were identified, and a few of them were demolished. What we learn here is that CMC has the power over all illegal constructions and can take destructive actions. Obviously, CMC turned a blind eye to the activities concerning the ill-fated building and thus is indirectly responsible for the accident and the death of two poor workers.

We can make our own inferences about the reason for their inaction. However, the pertinent question here is whether any official in CMC is held responsible and made accountable for the incident and is punished.

Summary and a Suggestion

Illegal constructions are not uncommon in India. Such activities can be stopped if the civic officials are duty-conscious and honest. In addition, I have a suggestion that may act as a deterrent. It is

“Corporations and other civic authorities will make it mandatory 

for the builders and contractors to 

display a copy of the approval letter and the approved plan at the construction site.”

If the foregoing is enforced, common people, and not just the authorities, will come to know whether the work in progress is legal or illegal.