The Hindu   14.08.2012

Inspection finds 170 illegal structures

N.J. Nair

A random inspection conducted by a team of town planners has detected unauthorised constructions and serious violations of building rules in the limits of four city corporations and six municipalities in the State.

The inspection report, submitted by S. Ajayakumar, Senior Town Planner (Vigilance), to Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali on August 9, says 170 of the 250 buildings inspected by the 17-member team between June 19 and July 29 were found to have been constructed in violation of the Kerala Municipal Building Rules. The buildings range from 500 sq m to 10,000 sq m. in area. The total area has been pegged at 2.5 lakh sq m.

Following a flood of complaints about unauthorised constructions, Mr. Ali directed Mr. Ajayakumar to constitute a special team to detect such cases.

The team, headed by Mr. Ajayakumar and including five town planners and seven deputy town planners, conducted inspections in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, and Kozhikode cities and Thrikkakkara, Kalamassery, Maradu, Palakkad, Perinthalmanna, and Kannur towns.

The team detected issue of permits in violation of the rules, deviation in front, side and rear yards, and violations in setback from roads, floor area ratio and coverage and town planning schemes.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Monday that except in the case of major violations, the Urban Affairs Ministry would regularise the constructions by levying a fine from the violators. A rough estimate puts the expected fine at Rs.100 crore. The funds so collected will be utilised for developing roads and carving out parking spaces in towns.

Mr. Ali is understood to have given directions to take stringent action against the officials who have issued illegal permits and connived with others for violating the rules. Though the team was constituted for conducting the present inspection, it will be made a permanent mechanism for conducting periodical inspection.

The team has suggested that the government direct the civic bodies to send an action-taken report to it on the disciplinary action initiated against the erring officials within a month. It has been proposed to conduct inspections once in three years and also during the ownership transfer of a building. A certificate by the building inspector should be mandated that no unauthorised construction has been made in the building seeking ownership transfer. At present, occupancy change in buildings is being done without inspections.

• Except for major violations, fine will be levied
  
• Stringent action to be taken against officials 

The Hindu   13.08.2012

Supreme Court stays demolition of multi-storeyed building

The Supreme Court has stayed the demolition of an unauthorised multi-storied building on Aziz Mulk Street in Thousand Lights on Anna Salai.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya stayed the order passed by the Madras High Court directing the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the Chennai Corporation to demolish the building. (Subsequent to the order, which was sent through fax, the authorities stopped the demolition.)

The Bench passed this order after hearing counsel Anand Padmanabhan, appearing for the appellant, V.M. Gangadharan, owner of an adjacent property, who was not a party to the dispute in the High Court.

In its brief order the Bench said, “Issue notice. Permission to file the SLP is granted. Meanwhile, the impugned order of the High Court insofar as it directs the authority to demolish the unauthorised construction raised by the third respondent, Ms. Mumtaz Begum, in the writ petition, shall remain stayed. We further direct that the CMDA will decide the matter regarding regularisation of the buildings as directed in the communication dated June 18, 2007 of the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Tamil Nadu, within a period of eight weeks after hearing the concerned parties.”

A petition filed by Muslim Educational Society alleged that Mumtaz Begum, to whom the building was leased out, had started constructing a multi-storeyed building on the land. It was alleged that she made illegal constructions after the termination of lease deeds. The High Court while slapping Rs.1 lakh exemplary cost on the woman, ordered demolition of the illegal constructions. A special leave petition was filed by V.M. Gangadharan, against this order dated July 3.

The appellant said though he was not a party to the proceedings in the High Court, it had made certain adverse orders and observations against him which if not interfered would lead to serious consequence for him and also would affect the proceedings before the CMDA for regularisation. He contended that he got permission and sanction for construction of two floors in 2002 and for the existing structure prior to 1993.

He said the question for determination was whether the High Court could have ordered demolition of property Door No 8 [that of the society] which was not only contiguous with Door No. 7 but would also affect his other legal rights. He sought a direction to stay the demolition.