The Hindu : Front Page : VMC moves to penalise erring builders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
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VMC moves to penalise erring builders

G.V.R. Subba Rao

VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is likely to pocket at least Rs. 40 crore by way of penalty following issuance of guidelines on December 31, 2007, by the department Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MUAD) to all corporations, municipalities, and the urban development authorities in the State.

Corporation officials, including City Planner P. Thimma Reddy, Additional Commissioner (Projects) S. V. Giridhar Rao, and Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) B. Nagendra Kumar discussed the modalities for implementation of G.O. Ms. 901. The corporation is likely to issue a notification in a couple of days. Town Planning wing officials are expected to complete the process by the end of February. The orders were aimed at penalising the owners of unauthorised buildings. The onus lies on the owners to apply for the penalisation and regularisation of the unauthorised constructions or deviations in the approved plans.

19 categories

The Government classified the buildings into 19 categories including individual, commercial, institutional, and high-rise. According to a rough estimate, the revenue through penalty would cross Rs. 40 crores, the officials, however, are yet to ascertain exact number of unauthorised constructions.

The government issued the GO based on Ordinance No.15 of 2007. Drawing a parallel to the Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS) that was in force till 1998, the officials are referring to these orders as Building Penalisation Scheme.

The scheme is, however, not applicable to the encroachments on lands belonging to the government, public undertakings, tank bed and sikham lands, etc. There is no provision to regularise the houses constructed in the area that was earmarked for parking. The corporation was empowered to demolish all unauthorised constructions that were not penalised within stipulated time, and would not approve any building plans at that site in the future.

The builders like G. Rajling and Y. V. Ramana Rao expressed the view that the middle class people would have to bear the brunt, as they purchased most of the flats.

Stating that the people purchased the flats with full knowledge of deviations in the approved plans, they ruled the possibility of penalising builders.

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