Deccan Chronicle 24.09.2009

GHMC to pull down illegal structures

Hyderabad

Sept. 23: Officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have threatened to pull down illegal structures if the applicants of Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) do not pay the second installment amount and submit relevant documents.

Corporation officials, worried over poor response from applicants, have decided to issue notices. As there is no deadline for making the final payment and for submission of documents, many applicants are not showing interest in expediting regularisation of their properties.

Out of 1.31 lakh applicants, around 40,000 have come forward to pay the remaining penal amount and to submit documents. The officials said, only 4,000 applicants out of 21,000 had approached the LB Nagar circle for regularisation of their property.

“We are issuing notices to all the BPS applicants who have not yet approached us for regularisation. The corporation does not hesitate to demolish the unauthorised structures if they are not regularised immediately as per the procedure,” said the deputy commissioner of LB Nagar circle, Ms P. Nagaveni.

In fact, the corporation has to dispose of all the applications by end of this year as the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the GHMC officials to complete the entire regularisation within six months.