Urban News

Sources said the finance secretary in a  letter on September 17 stated that prior approval is required while relaxing the experience and qualification in the service rules. This comes in the wake of several complaints from Association of  Professional Town Planners and Institute of Town Planners, India  (ITPI) for not adhering to the government’s approved service rules in appointment to various posts in the organisation.Sources said that during July 29, 2010 a written test was held for the recruitment to the post of assistant planners by involving only BE degree holders without considering qualified Master degree town planners specifically trained in the specialized institutions in town and country planning.

This has sparked protest from the Association of Professional Town Planners (APTP) who urged CMDA to cancel recruitment and to consider only qualified persons for the assistant planner’s post as per approved Service Regulations of CMDA 1980. APTP and two individuals Kalaimani and Usha Rani, who had a Masters in town planning, challenged the recruitment in the HC last month and got an interim order on reserving a post each for Kalaimani and Usha Devi, sources said. “Despite 28 of our members attended the interview for the post of assistant planner in the past and where in no civil engineer attended the interview. It is strange that only civil engineers are being called for written test and interview suppressing professional rights of qualified town planners,” the association said. Even an HC order stated “so long as the word ‘prior approval of the government’ is found in Section 124 (1) of the TN Town and Country Planning Act, the CMDA making its own amendment and not getting approval does not make any regulation valid.” In 2006, the government questioned CMDA for filling up certain posts. But CMDA ignored the GO and went ahead in filling up the posts, ITPI said.