The Hindu 04.07.2013
No survey of houses around temple ramparts: civic body
The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has clarified that
it has not taken up any survey of houses situated around the ramparts of
the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam and those old buildings
will not come under the purview of its recent initiative to seal
buildings with plan violations in the city.
The civic
body has come out with the clarification in the wake of “rumours” and
reports in some vernacular evening dailies that action is to be
initiated against 100 more buildings in Srirangam following the sealing
of a building near the Rajagopuram of the temple on Monday.
Corporation
Commissioner V.P. Thandapani, in a statement, urged people not to pay
heed to such rumours and panic. He clarified that the building near the
Rajagopuram was sealed based on a directive from the Madurai Bench of
the Madras High Court to the civic body. The court had asked the
corporation to initiate action as per law on a petition filed by the
temple management seeking a direction to order stoppage of the
construction of the building that was close to the temple gopuram and
rampart.
Based on the directive, action was initiated
against the builder for taking up the construction without approval.
Since the construction was not stopped even after the levy of penalty,
the building was sealed after giving notice under Sec.56 and Sec.57 of
the Town and Country Planning Act.
Similar action
will be initiated only against new buildings constructed without plan
approval or in violation of the approved plan, he said and added that
the corporation was making efforts to conserve the historic rampart of
the Srirangam temple.
Building sealed based on a directive from the Madras High Court.