‘People must raze shaky houses in Jaisalmer Fort’

Jaisalmer: On the day The Times of India published a news report, ‘Dilapidated houses, ancient havelis collapse in Jaisalmer’ (July 11), the city’s municipal council commissioner Lajpal Singh Sodha on Tuesday inspected many such houses and told the owners to pull them down in a planned way. If they did not start doing so within the next three days, he told them, the municipal council would raze the houses under Section 3 of the municipality Act. Sodha said that owners of dilapidated houses in the fort were told to raze the structures so that no untoward incident takes place during the monsoon season. He said that a final notice was being served to such house owners and if they fail to comply, the municipal council will raze the houses and the cost will be recovered from the owners.Meanwhile, a locked house in Thanvi Pada locality collapsed during the night. Sapna Vyas, a neighbour, said that there was no electricty during the night and most people were awake when they heard a loud sound at 1am. They saw that the old house had collapsed and its stones were lying scattered in the lane. She said complaints had been lodged several times about the house but no action was taken by the municipal authorities. Another neighbour, Rajat Vyas, said that the house was lying closed for 25 years. The lane had been blocked from the broken material of the house and the municipal council should clear it at the earliest, he added.