Coimbatore Consumer Cause has written to the Coimbatore Corporation to say that a resolution passed at the recent Council meeting on granting approval for additional construction and regularisation was totally misplaced.
The organisation’s Secretary K. Kathirmathiyon has clarified that the request it made was for approval for additional construction on those buildings that had been constructed as per norms of Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP)-approved or regularised sites. To deny permission for additional construction was illegal.
But the Corporation had mixed up the issue to such an extent that it had sought relief for people who had constructed buildings on unapproved sites, on places where the land usage classification was not residential and had not constructed the building as per plan or had not obtained plan approval.
By mixing up the two different issues, the Corporation had got it wrong and had failed to provide relief to those residents who had complied with rules. And, to ask for regularisation of buildings on unapproved sites was not possible because at the time of granting exemption between 2006 and 2009 because the Madras High Court had said that the exemption ought to be only once.
Therefore, there was no point in the civic body asking for a second exemption.
To overcome the problem, Mr. Kathirmathiyon suggested that the Corporation could issue an administrative order for approval of additional construction provided the house site where the construction would take place was approved, the building was constructed as per the approved plan and the total constructed area including the proposed construction was less than 4,000 sq.ft.
