The Hindu 02.01.2009
Minister takes MCC officials to task
Staff Correspondent
| There were complaints of officers harassing the people |
240 applications seeking building licences are pending
82 requests made before October 1, 2009 to be cleared
MANGALORE: The New Year day did not go well with the town planning officials of Mangalore City Corporation, as they attracted the wrath of district in-charge Minister J. Krishna Palemar, who paid a surprise visit to their section for inspection.
The Minister visited the section following complaints that the officials were harassing the people for issuing building licences.
He took the officials to task for the delay in issuing building licences.
Later, the Minister told presspersons that the corporation had received 880 applications between April 2009 and December, 2009 seeking building licences. Of them, only 516 applications had been cleared. Of the remaining 364 applications, 124 files had been sent to Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) for clearance. Hence 240 applications were yet to be cleared, he said.
The Minister said that the corporation had recently issued notices to 82 persons, who had applied for building licences before October 1, 2009 when the revised Master Plan came into effect. In the notice, the applicants had been asked to apply once again for the licence after modifying the building plan according to the provisions of the revised Master Plan.
But, it was not proper on the part of the civic body to do so as they had applied before the implementation of the revised Master Plan, Mr. Palemar said.
He said that he had instructed the officials to issue licences to those applicants.
The Minister said he would soon convene a meeting of councillors to discuss certain issues pertaining to the corporation.
