The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Plea to extend BPS deadline

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Plea to extend BPS deadline

Staff Reporter

GVMC accused of exerting pressure by notifying last date as April 30

Verification of buildings by experts mooted
Issue of occupancy certificate without considering safety aspects decried

VISAKHAPATNAM: The deadline for Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) should be extended pending disposal of the interim orders issued by the High Court, Visakhapatnam Apartment Residents’ Welfare Association (VARWA) president Ch.L.N. Sastry and general secretary A.V. Ramana Rao have said.

Addressing a media conference on Thursday, they said that the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) authorities were exerting pressure on people, in violation of the court orders, by notifying that the last date for payment of penalty under BPS was April 30. They said that apartment owners were all the more worried as they had to identify the violations committed by the builders and pay the penalty. There was no guarantee that the violations would be regularised, even if BPS amount was paid, in view of the interim order against regularisation.

Demands

The other demands were: the government shouldn’t look at ‘occupancy certificate’, which should be issued only when the building guidelines were followed, as a mere revenue-generating exercise, setting up of a ‘building ombudsman’ for promoting quality of constructions and to protect the interests of buyers and simplification of the regularisation process.

Chairman of the Indian Institute of Architects Y. Narasimha Rao deplored the idea of merely collecting the penal amount and issuing the occupancy certificate without verifying the safety aspects of the buildings. He felt that a physical verification of the buildings should be done with the help of experts, and based on their advice remedial measures should be taken.

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