The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Committee spares residential buildings from demolition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Committee spares residential buildings from demolition

A .Srivathsan

CHENNAI: Unauthorised construction and deviations in residential buildings will not be demolished if the government accepts the recommendations of the High Court appointed monitoring committee. Following the High Court order and instructions issued in 2006, less stringent measures are proposed for residential buildings and awaits government approval since August 2007.

The High Court order in 2006 appointed a monitoring committee to look into the building violations and listed the priorities for action. It directed the committee to first take up multi-storied commercial complexes and stated that if the entire building is found illegal they can be demolished.

In the case of multi-storied and special residential buildings, the court ordered the committee to recommend less stringent measures.

The committee after consulting the planners at the CMDA has not recommended demolition of unauthorised residential buildings. Instead, it has categorised them into three groups and laid out differential penalties.

In addition, the committee has instructed the CMDA that building violations even in residential buildings cannot be perpetually allowed and to put a cut-off date in place.

“If the criteria recommended by the monitoring committee are adopted, only multi-storied commercial buildings which are in gross violation of the rules and the court orders alone need to be demolished. Such buildings would only be few hundreds in number. The 1.72 lakh buildings often being quoted as the number of violations is misleading. Instead of quickly deciding on the less stringent measures and bringing relief to the residential building owners, the CMDA is taking long time to decide. If the recommendations are implemented, it may solve the problem and only a manageable number of buildings would remain to be demolished,” says M.G.Devasahayam, one of the monitoring committee members.

Government sources say that a subcommittee of the Chennai Metropolitan Authority is still studying the recommendations. The Supreme Court ordered a ‘status quo’ on demolition of unauthorised constructions in Chennai in December 2007. “Demolitions were taken up after the Madras High Court struck down a law granting moratorium for one year on demolition of unauthorised constructions numbering over 37,000, including 147 high rise commercial complexes.”

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

Tamil Nadu