The president of the College of Architects and Surveyors Engineers (codia) called to be more energetic in the persecution and stoppage of illegal works to avoid loss of life, while the Dominican Federation of Municipalities (Fedomu) will propose a municipal business license for works in the proposed amendment to law 176-07.
Cristina Rojaspresident of the codiasaid that for a long time they have been calling attention to stop the system of illegal constructions and permission is required for a construction.
He stated that the collapse of a building in The Vega It has also happened in other places, such as in a hotel in Bull Head, where a person died and in San Juan de La Maguana where a house collapsed with a fatality.
“You have to be energetic, we as codia We are drafting a document to present to the Ministry of Housing, the Attorney General’s Office and the mayors through the Dominican Municipal League so that illegal works let’s start chasing themto notify them and paralyze them because people’s lives are put at risk.
Rojas called the authorities, headed by the Ministry of Housing, so that a “battle” is made against all illegal works and begin to demand the corresponding permits. “What the city councils give is land use permits, and they immediately give them, the homes that require them, normally the ones who legalize the works are the promoters, but the individuals do not.”
Fedomu
For his part, the president of Fedomu and mayor of The Vega, Kelvin Cruzreported that it is motivating and raising awareness so that the modification to Law 176-07 includes a commercial and municipal license as required in other countries.
It considered that the infrastructure of a house cannot be used to install a pharmacy, a store, a beauty salon or other types of businesses if they do not have a permit from the municipal authorities.
“The municipalities do not have the economic capacity to supervise the structures that can fight with the construction demands. We make an extraordinary effort to pay an inspector, but we only receive 3% and it is not enough to pay more supervisors”Mayor of La Vega and president of Fedomu
He said that unfortunately the municipalities do not have the necessary funds to have a team, a professional structure that can provide coverage, a general treatment, of what is the response to the issue of supervision.
He stated that, in the case of the structure that collapsed in The VegaIt was a building that had had no problem for a long time. He remembered that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to supervise the works because the municipalities only have the authority to grant land use.
The authorities arrested the owners of the Multi Muebles de The Vega It collapsed, leaving one person dead and several injured.
The Public Ministry accuses the owners of carrying out construction work without the permits of the Dominican College of Engineers and Architects (codia) or the Department of Urban Planning of the Mayor’s Office of The Vega.
However, Luis Félix, one of the lawyers for the owners of the Multi Muebles building, said this Wednesday that his clients did not make changes to the structure.
