SHILLONG: Tears and complaints of the affected tenants and residents of several buildings greeted East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal, district Superintendent of Police M. Kharkrang, MUDA officials and others when they went to seal the sky-rise buildings on Monday. The tenants alleged that they were given a very short period of time to vacate the buildings following the order of the High Court of Meghalaya to seal all 24 high-rise buildings in and around the city. The Court in its order on June 10 had directed the district administration and the police to seal all the 24 sky-rise buildings as some bamboo structures have come up despite the court restricting further constructions. The affected tenants and resident, the old, sick and the students, argued that some of them were given only one day to vacate their houses, while others got two to three days, which, according to them was grossly inadequate. The demanded more time to search for accommodation in other parts of city. The Deputy Commissioner who was present at the sealing sites said that the district administration was just obeying the Court order. The district administration is unlikely to appeal for more time for the tenants who have been affected due to the court order. It was learnt some affected families had approached the Court for redress but the matter has been listed for the next hearing on June 18. The Court action comes in the wake of violation of MUDA Bylaws of 2011, but the questions doing the rounds are why did MUDA give permission to construct the sky-rise buildings and why did it take action only when the High Court intervened last year after a PIL was filed. Moreover, there are questions raised by the affected tenants and owners of the buildings as to why no action is being taken against other high-rise buildings in the city in exception to the 24 buildings identified by the Committee formed by the High Court. The High Court had made a series of orders since April 11 last year following the PIL filed by city-based lawyer Jonathan Thangkhiew and three others against sky-rise buildings. “The PIL was against all sky-rise buildings constructed beyond the prescribed limit of ground floor plus three more floors considering that Meghalaya falls under Seismic Zone V, but we fail to understand the logic that only 24 buildings will be affected by the calamities including earthquakes whereas there are so many other sky-rise buildings in the city also under Seismic Zone V,” one of the affected residents said on Monday. It was on April 23 that the district administration sealed 12 buildings belonging to Narayan Prasad Jhunjhunwala (Police Bazaar), Nilesh Tibrewalla (Thana Road), Satyabrato Baidya (Jail Road), Ajit Das Gupta (Jail Road), Bidur Das (Jail Road), Uday N Shukla (Oakland Road), Rajkumari Sinha (Bivar Road), Mentok Ri-Project Pvt. Ltd (Bivar Road), Maruf Elahi (Bivar Road), Beroline Khongshei (Laban), Mohendro Rapsang (Keating Road) and Saini Pala (Motinagar). Later, 12 more buildings were listed for violation of the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2011. The 12 affected parties are Sanjib Das (GS Road, Police Bazar), Manchin Fincon Pvt Ltd (Jail Road), Kenneth M Lyngdoh (Bivar Road), Sanjay Jhunjhunwala (Bivar Road), Modrick Nongkynrih (Bishop Cotton Road), BD Marbaniang (Demseniong), Lamboklang Mylliemngap (Motinagar), Dr TA Sohklet (Lummawrie), Allenwood Swer (Fire Brigade), Secretary of Islamia Secondary School (GS Road, Police Bazar), P Dkhar (Laban) and Nicolas Wallang (Boyce Road).