An eminent builder group which saw no error in usurping extra land to build a high-rise at Kowdiar has a court order in its favour now. Allegedly due to the loopholes the Corporation’s initial notice to the group had left in it.

 Or how else does a big retail chain function at Pazhavangadi, at a place earmarked for rehabilitating traders at Thakaraparambu for making way for  a flyover there? Only when the business centre commenced its activities did the Corporation raise an objection. The officers, right from the Building Inspectors to the TPO, were put in dock, the members of a Left party engineered protests and pelted a few stones at the name board and Corporation officials cried foul.

 But when the notice was served, the Corporation admonished the retail chain for a deviation that they had made in the original plan! The fact that the entire construction was unauthorised was not mentioned anywhere in that notice. In a few months, everything was forgotten. The shop is now bustling with activity and nobody in the Corporation raises a voice, citing the matter is sub judice. The prospects of the Thakaraparambu flyover, which is in the TCRIP, is now hanging in the balance as there is no space for rehabilitating the traders at Thakaraparambu. How money works!

 A building which was being constructed at Aristo Road, Thampanoor, by a Tamil Nadu-based individual was already halfway up when the Corporation awakened from its slumber. There were allegations then that the notice served was in effect reducing the violation the owners had made.

 At Kunjalamoodu and Beemapally, illegal constructions are many. But the otherwise forbidding Corporation (especially with the poor and the deprived who frequent their offices for building permits) appears frail and shaky to even cast a glance there.

 The information ‘Expresso’ obtained using the Right to Information (RTI)Act says that 173 notices have been served on unauthorised constructions in the city. But the Corporation has not filed any case against the erring buildings before any court. In contrast, 48 cases have been filed against the Corporation in many courts in response to the notices it had served on the buildings.  

 Lately, one of the Council meetings had witnessed a stormy discussion on the dubious role of the Corporation advocates in the matter. Many of the allegations cannot be dismissed as flimsy, though they leave nothing in the way of evidence. The councillors had then alleged that the advocates were favouring the petitioners in many cases against the Corporation. And providing legal advice which was not worth listening to.

 Five advocates appear for the Corporation in various courts, including the Tribunal, Munsiff Court, District Court, High Court and Supreme Court. Two of them have been serving the Corporation since 1997. In the total 1,542 cases that the Corporation has fought over the last five years, except 317 cases, the others have been settled with the onus of resolving the dispute laid again on the shoulders of the local body. Only one case has gone to the Supreme Court.

 In 34 cases, where the verdict was against it, the Corporation has gone for appeal. The cases dismissed by the Tribunal and High Court often ask the Corporation to take new steps to resolve the complaint or to review the complaint and take a time-bound decision respectively. Which means, to point a successful case that they won for the Corporation, is as difficult as the judgement of Paris.

 ‘‘If you take a single case of a violation or unauthorised construction and calculate the amount spent on the advocates for working on it, it would be shocking. Often, the Finance Committee passes huge amounts as counsel fees, but since they are below Rs 1 lakh, the matter does not come to the Council,’’ said a top official of the Corporation.

 The contributions made by building inspectors and revenue officials are noteworthy too. Shell out a few bucks among them and your commercial building or house would fetch a building permit earlier than expected. A builder told this paper, ‘‘The delay these officials cause in the procedures is a huge loss. When what could be done in six months gets delayed by another year, the rate of building materials spiral up. Losses in crores can be avoided by sparing a few lakhs.’’

 What a way to go!