The Hindu 08.08.2012
Demolition of illegal building halted midway
norms floutedThe building at Thousand Lights had violations pertaining
to set-back space, floor space index and parking space —Photo: R. Ragu
A team of officials of Chennai Metropolitan Development
Authority and Chennai Corporation were forced to suspend the demolition
of an unauthorised multi-storied building on Anna Salai on Tuesday.
“We
received a fax at 5 p.m. from the Supreme Court saying that a stay
order would be sent soon,” said an official who was part of the team
that was involved in the demolition of the sixth floor of the building.The building was unauthorised and had glaring violations pertaining to set-back space, floor space index and parking space.
The
demolition began following a directive of Madras High Court that issued
orders to demolish the unauthorised multi-storied building in Thousand
Lights.A petition filed by the Muslim Educational
Society, Karaikal, contended that a woman had allegedly made illegal
constructions after the termination of lease deeds.
The
woman had applied for regularisation of the illegal construction but it
was rejected by the government as the construction was not completed on
or before March 31, 2002.
A division bench of
Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M. Venugopal directed the authorities to
demolish the unauthorised structure at the woman’s expense within two
weeks, and report compliance.
When the officials
reached the spot, some persons allegedly resisted the move. Yet the
officials carried out the demolition with police assistance. The
building has a basement, and ground plus five floors.The civic body officials said the building was demolished on a previous occasion but new construction was done subsequently.