The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Status report sought on layouts ‘approved’ by town panchayats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 05, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Status report sought on layouts ‘approved’ by town panchayats

Special Correspondent

‘Local bodies do not have the powers to approve layouts’

‘No clarification from the Government agencies concerned on the status of these layouts’
Consumer body says it has not received any reply to the earlier letter

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has asked the Secretary Municipal Administration and Water Supply and the Director of Town Panchayats whether any action is being initiated against houses constructed in unapproved layouts that have been certified as approved by the local bodies.

Secretary of the consumer body K. Kathirmathiyon said on Friday that he had sought information under the Right to Information Act on the fate of these layouts, as there was no clarification from the Government agencies concerned on the status of these layouts.

He had drawn their attention to the lack of provision in any rule for the local bodies to certify any layout as approved, when these did not have the approval of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning. He said the people were led to believe that the layouts had the approval of the authority concerned. But, in reality, the local bodies did not have the powers to approve them.

The letter from the consumer activist to the Director of Town Panchayats says that in respect of layouts, there are two categories. One category is approved layouts (approved by appropriate authority such as the Director / Joint Director /Deputy Director of Town and Country Planning) and the other is unapproved layouts.

But in most of the town panchayats, there was another category -- "illegally approved layouts" that were approved by Executive Officers themselves, Mr. Kathirmathiyon said.

They gave the approval even though they were not vested with the powers to do so, he alleged. Owing to such illegal approval, many people believed these were approved layouts and were cheated. This could be verified with any of the town panchayat in the district, using the building plan approval with corresponding layout approval numbers.

Mr. Kathirmathiyon said he had sought information under the Act by submitting an application to the Public Information Officer at the office of the Director of Town Panchayat on August 28.

The consumer body had asked whether such unauthorised approval had come to the knowledge of the Director. If it had, what action had been taken against the officials who had granted approval to the layouts. Mr. Kathirmathiyon also wanted to know whether the sites purchased prior to July 24 in these layouts had also been regularised under the new scheme. If not regularised now, would any action be taken against those houses, he asked.

Besides, would any relief be provided to those people who had purchased the sites after July 24, the cut off date for regularisation.

If the layouts were approved by the Executive Officer of Town Panchayats after July 2006, and the building plan approved by them subsequently for the construction of houses, would these buildings be deemed authorised or unauthorised, he asked.

Mr. Kathirmathiyon also called for an early reply to this letter, stating that he did not get one to the earlier letter within the time stipulated under the Act.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section