One more building tilts in city

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) has identified one more tilted building in the city's Mirpur and asked the occupants to vacate it.
GM Halim, Rajuk authorised officer, said, "We have identified the tilt recently and served an evacuation notice on the owner and lodged a general diary with the local police station in this regard on June 10."
The six-storey residential building at the first colony of Jabbar Housing Society on Mazar Road, has been built violating the approved design, he said.
He said Rajuk detected the deviation last December and served the notice upon its owner to demolish the illegal portions of the building but the owner never heeded.
Sharifunnessa, mother-in-law of the building's owner Altaf Hossain, said that the building has a “negligible tilt” due to faulty piling (ground work) since it was built.
She said they can't leave the house all of a sudden as it was purchased spending hard-earned money.
She denied having received any notice from Rajuk in December.
Rajuk circulated a notice on June 10 by hand among the tenants asking them to vacate the building since the building is risky, said Sharifunnessa.
She said the no 112/A/4 building was purchased in 2007.
Authorised officer Halim said the building has been tilted due to the construction fault.
It has been built on an earth-filled low-lying land and as a result, it has tilted to the south due to soil settlement, he said.
The building owner also filed a general diary on the same day Rajuk filed one, said Md Abdul Malek, officer-in-charge of Darus Salam Police Station.
Police wrote a letter to Rajuk chairman on Friday asking for a report and clear direction as to whether evacuation has to be done, he said.
Rajuk will knock down the illegal portions of the structure, Sheikh Abdul Mannan, director (development control) of Rajuk, told The Daily Star.
Rajuk has sent a letter to Dhaka City Corporation to pull down the building, as it is risky, he said.
The matter surfaced yesterday, as Rajuk men went to the spot to hang a warning sign, said Mannan.
OC Malek said his men visited the spot a week ago and he himself yesterday.