GHAZIABAD: Engineers of Ghaziabad Development Authority ( GDA ) called off their strike on Wednesday, a day after abstaining from work in protest against the indictment of nine fellow employees in the June 22 building collapse case. And within hours, they sealed 30 illegal buildings across all zones, officials said.The development agency had on Tuesday registered an FIR at Masuri police station against an assistant engineer, four junior engineers, two supervisors and two junior employees for the building collapse in Dasna area that had claimed two lives.“We had a meeting with the GDA vice chairperson who heard our grievances and after an assurance that matters pertaining to demolition and sealing in future would be coordinated with all departments in a proper manner, we called off the strike,” said an agitating engineer. “The sealing drive is on,” he added.GDA vice chairperson Ritu Maheshwari said the orders for action against the nine employees came from Meerut range commissioner Anita Meshram and there was little GDA could have done in the matter.“The agitating employees were told that they should convey their grievances directly to the Meerut range commissioner. Moreover they should realised that if they halt sealing work, then Dasna-like mishaps can take place again. Anyway, they have resumed work,” she said. “On Wednesday, we sealed 30 illegal buildings in zones 1,4,5 and 8 and by now, the number of buildings sealed has risen to 139,” said VK Singh, OSD to GDA. The GDA had on Monday sealed 87 illegal buildings, followed by 22 on Tuesday.Meanwhile, the GDA is planning to carry out a safety audit of all buildings in the city. Maheswari said “this is the need of the hour” as the magisterial inquiry into the Dasna building collapse has pointed out structural deficiency as the main cause for the mishap. “Also the material used were sub-standard and the builder did not use chips and mortar in proper composition that led to the collapse,” she said.“So in this backdrop, we are planning to conduct a safety audit of all buildings in the city, starting with dangerous and unsafe buildings. In the audit, we will be focusing on quality of materials used, foundation of a building and its lead-bearing capacity among others. ,” said Maheswari, also the district magistrate.The city has about 300 highrises, including 25 towers in Kaushambi, 28 buildings in Crossings Republik and the remaining in Indirapuram, Vaishali and Raj Nagar Extension.

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