The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Move to regulate flat construction

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Friday, Mar 14, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Move to regulate flat construction

Special Correspondent

Probe to detect illegal structures to be extended

Paloli Mohammed Kutty

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government will amend the Kerala Municipal Building Rules and give more teeth to curb construction of flats, Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty has said.

Mr.Kutty, while replying to questions in the Assembly on Thursday, said that 152 unauthorised flats had been detected in Kochi. An inquiry to detect unauthorised structures would be extended all over the State.

Safety norms for constructing multi-storey buildings would be incorporated in the new rules. Amendments to the zoning regulation norms too were being completed to lessen the woes of those constructing residential buildings in small plots. Building rules for panchayats would come into force soon.

Single window clearance for issuing building permits, introduced in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, would be extended to all civic bodies in a phased manner.

On implementing the amended rules, permission for constructing high-rise flats would be granted after considering the availability of space, drinking water and other facilities according to the National Building Code.

The new rules were expected to ease the problems in constructing buildings in the heritage zone.

A survey to rectify the discrepancies in the BPL list had been completed in all corporations, except Thiruvananthapuram, he said.

Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said that cases had been registered against 120 officers of the Revenue and Survey departments, including Deputy Collectors, in connection with forging of revenue documents.

Resurvey would be completed in a time-bound manner.

The system adopted for the resurvey of Thycaud village in the capital would be emulated all over the State. Encroachments had been evicted from 12,600 acres and added to the land bank.

The task force, which is continuing the evictions, retrieved 754 acres in Vattavila village and 13.65 acres in Chinnakanal. Three revenue vigilance cells were functioning in the State.

Minister for Ports M.Vijayakumar said that a taskforce comprising revenue and the police had been constituted to find out the encroachments on the Port Department land.

The team would submit its report within three months. Minister for Devaswom G.Sudhakaran said that steps had been taken to evict the encroachments on the land owned by temples.

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