Is the local government innocent?

TPO - Regarding the mini apartment building 'on crutches' in Hanoi , residents said that the representative of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department discussed the appraisal results and pointed out the cause. If the construction process was not guaranteed, the investor would be responsible. If the neighbor built a project next door and caused the impact, the neighbor would be responsible...

On the afternoon of March 11, at the headquarters of the People's Committee of Ha Dinh Ward (Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi), a meeting was held to discuss solutions to the problem of the dilapidated mini apartment building at No. 22, Alley 236/17, Khuong Dinh Street.

According to the reporter's investigation, at the meeting, the representative of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department said that after the incident occurred, the Hanoi People's Committee issued a document requesting the application of Articles 44 - 47 of Decree 06/2021, so "the government must get involved" instead of letting residents and investors fix it themselves. Thanh Xuan District has established an investigation team for this construction incident.

The case of the 'crutches' apartment building in Hanoi: Is the local government innocent? photo 1

The dilapidated mini apartment building "must use crutches" to ensure safety. Photo: PV.

According to information from residents, at the meeting, the leaders of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department requested residents and investors to provide records, documents, and technical data related to the mini apartment building "on crutches" to serve the appraisal process, determine the cause of the incident; from there, the responsibilities of related organizations and individuals will be determined.

The representative of the residents of the mini apartment building said that the residents' wish is for the parties to try to fix the problem so that the residents can return home as soon as possible.

“The people here are all poor. The rich wouldn’t buy this house. Now we have to temporarily evacuate everywhere. Living conditions are very difficult, we have to rent a house… so if this continues, it will be extremely difficult,” said a resident representative, expressing his hope that the authorities will create favorable conditions and apply flexible laws so that we can return home as soon as possible, and requesting that the investor cover all the costs of repairing the mini apartment building because “the people don’t have money.”

The investor representative said that as soon as the mini apartment building had an unsafe incident, they invited a unit to support the building, the cost of implementation was 930 million VND. Regarding the support cost, the investor is willing to support 100%, but for the next stages, they need to "sit down together".

Residents said that the leaders of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department discussed the results of the mini apartment building appraisal and will point out the cause. If the construction process is not guaranteed, the investor will be responsible, if the neighbor is building a project next door and causing impact, the neighbor must be responsible... Until the appraisal results are available, people should not discuss the cost of repair and remediation.

When a resident asked to know how long the renovation and troubleshooting process would take to find a suitable rental place, a representative of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department said that residents are also a subject in troubleshooting this project, so they should not ask when it will be completed (!?)

According to residents attending the meeting, at the meeting, the representative of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department admitted that this was an incident that the government was in crisis about. "When you bought a house, you didn't ask us. Did you buy cheap, buy expensive or buy how? When the incident happened, you asked us where we were? Well, here we are with you" - residents quoted the representative of the Thanh Xuan District Urban Management Department sharing with the press.

Many urban experts believe that the responsibility for state management of construction order belongs to local authorities. The licensing and quality management of individual houses that have been transformed into mini apartments in recent times have exposed many major loopholes that are slow to be fixed.

Truong Phong

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