The Hindu              14.02.2014

Action against unauthorised structures welcomed

With concern growing over the blatant violation of building rules in various parts of the district, action initiated against a commercial complex nearing completion at Coonoor on Wednesday has been hailed by people belonging to various sections of society.

Following complaints against the building which was coming up at Bedford, the district administration had asked the municipal authorities to take appropriate action.

With enquiries revealing that a permit issued by the municipality to put up a house had been misused to construct a commercial complex, civic officials had sealed the building late on Wednesday evening.

Earlier, the officials initiated action against another building in the vicinity which was being put up without adhering to the rules.

Welcoming the action Rajesh Kumar James, Secretary of the Coonoor Citizens’ Forum told The Hindu here on Thursday that following the building rules being made stringent in this ecologically sensitive district the trend , particularly among unscrupulous businessmen, was to find loopholes.

Permits

Since the municipality can issue permits to construct houses extending up to 1,500 sq.ft without getting no objection certificates from various agencies like the Geo Tech Cell, they are being misused to put up commercial complexes. He alleged that it was being done with the connivance of officials.

Among the places worst affected by such manipulation were Ooty, Coonoor and their surroundings.

The Times of India             12.02.2014

Dustbins must for shops in city bus stands, says mayor

MADURAI: In an effort to make Madurai a clean city, the corporation has come down hard on shop keepers in and around Periyar bus stand and complex bus stand.

Mayor V V Rajan Chellappa has instructed all the shop owners inside the bus stand premises to keep a dustbin in front of their shops. They have been given a deadline of two days for the task and any shop found without dustbin will be penalized with fine, he warned.

Meanwhile, night cleaning was undertaken at Periyar bus stand and its surrounding areas from October last year and nearly 50 sanitary workers were deputed for the same. The mayor and the corporation commissioner, Kiran Gurrala, inspected the night cleaning works on Monday night, following which they decided to implement this measure inside the bus stand too.

Periyar stand is one of the important bus terminals in the city . There are nearly 50 shops inside the terminal. Another good number of shops can be spotted near the Complex stand that operates city-bound buses to farther destinations.

According to the mayor, the civic body had distributed small dustbins to households in the city under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) to keep the city clean. They are now tightening up cleanliness measures at many important places, including Periyar stand..

The shop owners of both Periyar bus stand and Complex Stand were asked to keep dustbins. "In fact we have told them that they are responsible for the garbage strewn in front of their shops. The sanitary workers can clean the garbage thrown by the public but when shopowners dump them in open, it becomes a tedious task," he said.

Sanitary inspectors will monitor the shops in the coming days to ensure that the owners adhere to the new norm.