The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Windfall for civic body

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Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Windfall for civic body

GHMC may net up to Rs. 900 crore in penal fee

HYDERABAD: The GHMC could get about Rs. 900 crore for infrastructure development once the entire penal amount for regularisation of unauthorised buildings and illegal layouts is realised.

There is no danger of the money flowing elsewhere with the government orders issued when the Compulsory Disclosure Scheme (CDS) was initiated on January1 clearly stating the fees collected from Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) and Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) would be spent in the respective areas.

GHMC has now about Rs. 385 crore realised as penal fee collection from both BPS and LRS in the last six months. Assuming that most people must have paid a part of the total fee to be paid - 0 per cent to 50 per cent, it could swell up to Rs. 900 crore or more accepts Additional Commissioner (Planning & Projects) K. Dhananjaya Reddy.

Fee collection

It has been a windfall on Tuesday, last day of filing applications for BPS, with 41,868 forms and penal fee collection touching almost Rs. 18.5 crore. Penal fee collection was about Rs. 6 crore for 716 applications for LRS even though there is time till September for the citizens to apply for the scheme. With precise numbers available from all its 18 circles on Wednesday, Mr. Reddy pointed out that the figures surpassed their expectations as most counters were kept open till 10 p.m. or till the last person’s application was received. In the last 15 days alone, 77,769 BPS forms and 4,609 LRS forms were received and more than Rs. 50 crore realised as penal fee.

The Corporation would take up to six months to process the applications once court clearance is obtained. “We have kept all the paperwork and schedule ready,” said Mr. Reddy. Apartments and independent houses of ground plus one and two could get cleared fast, buildings up to 15 metres height will have random inspections while there will be compulsory field visit for commercial buildings and high rises (above 18 metres height), he said. In the meantime, data would be computerised.

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Andhra Pradesh