Over 30 buildings in Dehradun declared 'dilapidated' yrs ago, residents refuse to leave

Cases of building collapse in Ghaziabad and Greater Noida has put the spotlight on a number of dilapidated establishments in the state capital. According of officials records, 42 buildings in the city have been declared ‘dilapidated’, some as far as 10 years ago, but not a single one of them has been vacated. The buildings include residential and commercial properties, including a government bank, and were served eviction notices by Dehradun nagar nigam over the years. TOI visited some of these buildings and found people living inside the crumbling walls with wide cracks. The owner of one such building at Chakrata Road said that he was “confident” that the structure was safe. “My family has owned this building for more than five decades and it is safe. The DMC has wrongly identified it,” he said. Many other buildings in Doiwala, Raipur and Rajpur Road which have been marked ‘dilapidated’ also had residents living in them.