The Hindu 08.08.2012
Demolition of illegal building halted midway
A team of officials of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Chennai Corporation were forced to suspend the demolition of an unauthorised multi-storied building on Anna Salai on Tuesday.
“We received a fax at 5 p.m. from the Supreme Court saying that a stay order would be sent soon,” said an official who was part of the team that was involved in the demolition of the sixth floor of the building.The building was unauthorised and had glaring violations pertaining to set-back space, floor space index and parking space.
The demolition began following a directive of Madras High Court that issued orders to demolish the unauthorised multi-storied building in Thousand Lights.A petition filed by the Muslim Educational Society, Karaikal, contended that a woman had allegedly made illegal constructions after the termination of lease deeds.
The woman had applied for regularisation of the illegal construction but it was rejected by the government as the construction was not completed on or before March 31, 2002.
A division bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M. Venugopal directed the authorities to demolish the unauthorised structure at the woman’s expense within two weeks, and report compliance.
When the officials reached the spot, some persons allegedly resisted the move. Yet the officials carried out the demolition with police assistance. The building has a basement, and ground plus five floors.The civic body officials said the building was demolished on a previous occasion but new construction was done subsequently.
