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24 high-rise buildings sealed in Shillong

By Raju Das

SHILLONG, June 15 � Several families have been rendered homeless within a span of 24 hours after the East Khasi Hills district administration sealed buildings that are G plus three and constructed in violation of laid norms.

The district administration gave notices to the owners of 24 such buildings across the State Capital on Thursday and began eviction from the next day itself.

The decision to seal the buildings was taken by a committee constituted by an order of the Meghalaya High Court. The 24 buildings were constructed in violation of Meghalaya Urban Development Authority norms and were found to be unsafe with the State Capital falling in seismic zone V. Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal together with the Superintendent of Police M Kharkrang today personally went with security personnel and sealed some of these buildings.

In the process several families were evicted without giving time to get an alternative accommodation thus turning them into homeless people. �We should have been given time to re-locate. How can I find a new home within 24 hours,� a tenant in one of these buildings said.

Not just residential complexes, shopping malls were also sealed. �My children are having examinations and you are sealing our shop, without giving us time,� said one of the owners to the DC, who was overseeing the sealing of the building. Goyal when asked why time was not given to the tenants to re-locate, he said that he was just taking the decision based on the High Court�s order.

Meanwhile, the State Government is yet to come up with a tenancy law in the State, despite pleas from the general public as the rent is abnormally high in some pockets of the city. Moreover, owners take advances ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from the tenant.

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