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HUDA to fine architects for faulty building plans

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:37 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

HUDA to fine architects for faulty building plans

GURGAON: Architects, not house owners, will be issued notices if HUDA authorities find violations in building layouts in newly constructed houses within its jurisdiction.

Normally, HUDA sends a notice to a house owner if it finds discrepancies at the time of issuing the completion certificate. The authority refuses to issue such a certificate in case of a violation.

"Violations in building layouts take place because of an architect's mistake. It is the responsibility of the architect to stick to the rules," said HUDA administrator P C Meena. He said that issuing notices to house owners was unnecessary because it was the architect who submitted the building plan to the authorities.

In Gurgaon, for every house in plotted sectors, an architect is engaged to plan the house in accordance with the rule book. "Ideally, this step should have been taken a long time ago when the construction work was under way in many old sectors. If architects strictly ensure that a building is built according to the layout plan, there is no need to bribe anyone in HUDA," said a resident.

In the new system, HUDA officials will survey a new building and inspect its layout plan. In case the house has structural violations of any kind, the architect will be issued a notice.

Architects, however, argued they were forced to make changes at the insistence of house owners. A city-based architect said, "If there is any new rule holding the architect responsible for building layout violation then it is disheartening. Changes are done by house owners and contractors. We have no role in them."

 

MMC passes resolution on wards delimitation

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:34 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

MMC passes resolution on wards delimitation

MARGAO: Noisy and chaotic scenes were witnessed at a meeting of the Margao municipal council (MMC) on Wednesday after the 20-odd councillors were upset as they alleged that they were not taken into confidence on what would be discussed at the meeting.

The key outcome of the meeting was that a resolution was passed by the councillors for delimitation of the MMC wards. The aim of undertaking the delimitation process is to ensure that the population will be evenly divided across all the wards.

The councillors want that this resolution should be forwarded to the director of municipal administration by the chief officer Deepali Naik.

The councillors have also passed a resolution to increase the number of wards so as to have a minimum of 2,500 voters in each ward.

This is not the first time that the issue of delimitation and increasing the number of wards has been raised by the civic body, and sources said that the delimitation exercise, if undertaken, is likely to increase the number of wards from the current 20 to at least 25.

Later, chief officer Naik, speaking to TOI, explained that the proposal stems from the observation that there is considerable disparity in the population in the wards which affects the development works. "Whenever funds are allotted to the wards for development works, the wards with less population are likely to benefit more than the ones with large population. The revised demarcation of wards based on current population will address those anomalies," Naik said.

Earlier, during the meeting, there was a heated discussion between councillor Joseph Vaz and MMC chairperson Dayanand Deulkar, where Vaz alleged that certain encroachments near a chapel in Margao had the support of the chairperson. The allegations were denied by Deulkar.

Discussions were also held on the Goa regulation of land development and building construction Act 2008 and Naik stated that she would seek legal opinion on how to go about its implementation, while adding that the DMA had already issued directions for its immediate implementation.

Naik also directed all councillors to submit relevant details of pet owners in their wards and to offer full cooperation for the Mission Rabies campaign by the MMC who in collaboration with International Animal Rescue (IAR) will soon undertake an anti-rabies mission in Margao.

 

East Delhi Municipal Corporation increases councillor’s fund to Rs 2 cr

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:05 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

East Delhi Municipal Corporation increases councillor’s fund to Rs 2 cr

NEW DELHI: East Delhi Municipal Corporation has increased the councillor's fund to Rs2 crore from close to Rs55 lakh for the purpose of development. The move comes two months ahead of the 2014 general election slated for April and the BJP leadership in the corporations is going all out to finish projects before the model code of conduct kicks in. The BJP brass defended the move saying the money will be spent on improvement of roads, sanitation, streetlights and for carrying out other maintenance works.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation leader of the House B B Tyagi said the new entities would abide by the budget. "Due to trifurcation, the corporations did not have enough funds. But corporations have done much work after struggling for more than one-and-a-half years. Even though Delhi government still hasn't released funds they have achieved their targets. Ward-wise allocation of money will remain intact," Tyagi said.

Amnesty Scheme would be launched for property owners who constructed their houses prior to 2007 on plots of area up to 100 square metres. Their buildings could be regularized on deposition of compoundable fee. Home delivery of birth and death certificates through speed post will be initiated at a cost of Rs 60 lakh. A special window in both zones of East Corporation to add name on the birth certificate within half-an-hour will be established.

The amount provided for wedding of widow's daughters will be increased from Rs25,000 to Rs30,000. Women's toilets will be set up at busy public places such as markets at an estimated budget of Rs1 crore. The budget for scholarship to school children would be increased to Rs50 lakh. Solar panels would be erected in municipal schools at a budget of Rs 50 lakh.

As promised earlier, no new tax has been introduced and none of the existing taxes raised. "We can't burden the public," a councillor said. In his budget speech, the commissioner had proposed new taxes and increase in property tax and parking rates. 

 
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