The Hindu             30.01.2014

Evict encroachers from Anna Nagar Main Road: HC

The Madras High Court Bench here has directed Madurai Municipal Corporation Commissioner to decongest Anna Nagar eighty feet road in the city by evicting all unauthorised occupants from the roadsides.

A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Sudhakar and Justice V.M. Velumani passed the order in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate A.S.M. Kumar alias S. Muthukumar way back in September 2012 with a plea to evict hawkers too. Filing an affidavit in support of the petition, the lawyer stated that a number of hotels, hospitals and other commercial buildings had cropped up on the eighty feet road in the last few years without in-house provision for parking vehicles of their customers.

A total of 107 commercial buildings had been constructed in the locality without proper approval and most of them had encroached upon the pavements on both sides of the road thereby virtually leaving no space for pedestrian movement, he claimed.

He also said that the pedestrians were forced to face the risk of being knocked down by speeding vehicles as they had to walk on the middle of the road surpassing vehicles parked on the roadsides. Public roads could not be used for the business interests of private individuals, he added.

The Hindu             30.01.2014

Stringent enforcement of building norms in city soon

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

A major administrative revamp at the Chennai Corporation is set to improve the enforcement of rules pertaining to building violations in the city.

Last week, the State government cleared the Corporation’s proposal for a new administrative structure, which will facilitate the use of three regional offices more effectively, with separate executive engineers for town planning enforcement and town planning approval.

“The reorganisation of regional offices with an executive engineer for enforcement purposes alone will act as a deterrent. A team of five assistant engineers and two assistant executive engineers, exclusively for enforcement, will prevent further building violations in the city,” said a Corporation official.

There are 11 lakh property tax assessees in the 15 zones of the city. As per Corporation estimates, at least five lakh residential and commercial properties in the city have violated building norms.

Building violations apart, the reorganised system is set to strengthen civic administration across several fields including solid waste management and playground management in all regions.

Under the reorganised administrative system, a chief engineer and two superintending engineers will assist the regional deputy commissioner. A superintending engineer (general) will manage bus routes, buildings, parks and playgrounds in the five zones of each region.

Another superintending engineer in each of the regional offices will manage town planning, solid waste management and the mechanical engineering department. Five assistant engineers for town planning, three assistant executive engineers and an executive engineer will report to the superintending engineer for town planning at the regional office.

The number of superintending engineers at Ripon Buildings has come down to four, with six now working at the regional offices. The four will handle bridges, electrical issues, planning and quality control and special projects.

Team created exclusively for enforcement post civic body revamp.