Indian Express 22.11.2010
Illegal buildings: Huge task ahead for civic body
Express News Service Tags : Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, AMC Posted: Mon Nov 22 2010, 05:25 hrs
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will be racing against time to meet its target of sealing or demolishing nearly 539 buildings, which do not meet its norms, by March 15, 2011. This comes to around five buildings a day. When through, it will have accomplished targeting a small portion of two lakh units out of a gigantic half a million units in the city.According to an affidavit filed by the civic body in the Gujarat High Court, 164 of the 539 buildings lack fire safety equipment and 375 have unauthorised constructions in the parking space. AMC has already sealed nearly 2,000 units in the last five days as part of the time-frame given to the HC.
The court has asked shopkeepers to work out some proposal to resolve the parking problem on their own, making it clear that there will be no compromise on parking space norms. There is a general feeling that shopkeepers running businesses from basement shops could not be so naive as to not know that these shops were unauthorised.
“They do feel cheated but I cannot figure out why none of them go to court with a criminal complaint about this cheating,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner U C Padia, adding the AMC was merely executing the court order. Another way out is to seek amendment in the Gujarat Regularisation of Unauthorised Development Act, 2003, to find a lasting solution.
Padia, however, said the clear violation of the existing law could not be condoned either by AMC or by the courts in the absence of a legislative intervention. The magnitude of violation is so huge that a corrective action will take several years because the civic administration has many other functions to perform besides dealing with these violations, he added.
Padia said now is the time for the allegedly cheated shopowners to move court and other authorities against the builders for selling them illegally-built commercial units, if they wanted to seek a remedy, instead of approaching the elected wing.
Elsewhere, two schemes of Jaxay Shah, former president, Gujarat Institute of Housing and Estate Developers (GIHED), were sealed on Saturday for violation of fire safety installations and unauthorised construction. Officials said the buildings were constructed without permission.
The schemes are named Shapath I and Shapath II and are situated opposite Rajpath Club on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway. The towers have 125 units and cover 12,000 sq metres. Shah was unavailable for comments. Karishma Complex and Chandan Complex near Sardar Patel Stadium, and B G Tower outside Delhi Darwaja were also sealed.
