Property Plus
Coimbatore
Whose responsibility is it to protect reserved sites?
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The Corporation has issued a request to all the residents’ associations to prepare a list of reserved sites in their layouts and submit it to the civic body, writes K.V. Prasad
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A well-maintained park on a reserved site on Collector Sivakumar Road in the Saibaba Colony-K.K. Pudur area in the city. (Right) A reserved site at Rathinapuri that requires better attention. — Photos: M. Periasamy
Over the last few months, the city has been witnessing hectic efforts on the part of residents to identify reserved sites in their layouts and alert the Coimbatore Corporation of encroachments. The issue has come into sharp focus with the Corporation demolishing recently a building that had encroached upon a substantial portion of a reserved site at Alamu Nagar.
Elsewhere in the city, residents’ associations have taken upon themselves the task of identifying and protecting the sites. Recently, the Corporation also issued a request to all the residents’ associations to prepare a list of reserved sites in their layouts and submit it to the civic body.
The question being asked now is: whose responsibility is it to protect reserved or public purpose sites? With some residents already having proved that the people can play a pro-active role, the view now is that it is as much the responsibility of the local people, as it is of the Corporation, to protect the sites.
Official sources in the Corporation say that it does not have a comprehensive list of reserved sites in the city. It is also not clear how many sites have been formally handed over to the Corporation through a gift deed, how many are being maintained by residents’ groups and how many have been sold and houses built on these.
The latest effort of the Corporation aims at having a complete list of reserved sites in all the 72 wards. But, there are cases of encroachment already confronting the Corporation. There are charges of some encroachments being taken seriously and some others being ignored. In such a situation, it is felt that the public can play a vital role in preventing the sale of the reserved sites.
Apart from the absence of an initiative on the part of local bodies in the city and the suburbs to protect reserved sites, the lack of awareness among the people is also being cited as a major reason for misuse over the years. Most people who buy sites in a newly-promoted layout do not know about the mandatory allocation of a reserved site. “There are mistakes on both sides,” says vice-president of Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) G. Soundararajan. “People should know what a reserved site is and also that it is for our common good. But, not many people know of the rule that every layout should earmark 10 per cent of its total space for a public purpose site,” he says. And, even if people know the rules, the sense of belongingness is missing and this leads to the sites being sold.
Apart from creating a litter-free city, RAAC is also advocating enough green spaces. But, Mr. Soundararajan says there must be flexibility in using the sites. Usually, these are earmarked for parks while layout plans are submitted for approval. When the residents want to build any other common purpose facility such as a library or community hall, their proposal is rejected by the local body because the space had been originally allocated for a park. “Reserved sites must be used for the common benefit of the residents. So, a community hall or a library can also be built,” he says. But, it is not wise for any local body to build a water tank or a ward office on reserved sites after these are handed over to it by the residents.
Corporation Town Planning Officer M. Soundararajan says the Corporation has a list of reserved sites in layouts formed after 1993. Prior to this, it had not been mandatory that residents should hand over the sites to the Corporation through a gift deed. But, they should keep these as reserved sites and maintain them on their own. The recent call to residents to prepare a list is aimed at identifying these sites also.
“We are now working on an Asset Management Software that will help up maintain a list of the Corporation’s properties across the city and also the lands belonging to it on the outskirts, such as the compost yard at Vellalore,” he says.
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