Property owners who wish to demolish their buildings should get permission from the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation. They would have to pay Rs. 15 per square metre of the area of the property to be demolished.
Vehicles transporting the debris should be registered with the corporation and the debris should be deposited at the designated spots.
These were some of the important clauses of a set of regulations approved by the Corporation Council on Friday in an attempt to regulate demolition of buildings and removal of the debris. The move, Corporation Commissioner V.P. Thandapani said, was aimed at preventing indiscriminate dumping of debris.
Of late, construction debris could be seen dumped along the Uyyakondan near the Uzhavar Sandhai at Anna Nagar and the Konakkarai Road along the Kudamuritti river. “There are about two lakh houses in the city and at least 10 per cent of the property owners are found to be demolishing either fully or part of their buildings at any given time. Often, the debris is dumped in public places indiscriminately and the regulations aim at preventing such practices,” Mr. Thandapani said at an ordinary meeting of the council chaired by A. Jaya, Mayor.
As per the regulations, the debris should be removed within three days of the demolition of buildings and deposited at the Panchapur sewage farm or designated places to be identified in each zone.
The registration numbers of the vehicles transporting the debris should be registered with the Corporation on payment of an annual fee of Rs. 2,000 for lorries and Rs. 1,000 for mini-lorries.
Only vehicles with permits would be allowed to dump the debris at the designated spots.
Unauthorised vehicles caught transporting the debris would attract a penalty of Rs. 2,000. If the same vehicle was involved in the offence for the second time, a penalty of Rs. 5,000 would be imposed. The third and subsequent offences would attract a penalty of Rs. 10,000.
The debris collected at Panchapur would be used by the civic body or auctioned.
Move opposed
A cross-section of the councillors, especially those from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, stiffly opposed a move to bring data entry operators hired by the corporation on a temporary basis some years ago under a private agency by outsourcing the operations.
The Mayor announced that the resolution would be kept in abeyance until the court judgement on a case filed by the operators was delivered.
Mr. Thandapani said the State government had sanctioned 263 posts in the corporation.
Choked drains
Several DMK councillors alleged that drains in the city had not been cleared in the city and expressed apprehension over possible flooding during the monsoon.
Ms. Jaya refuted the charge and read out a list of canals on which silt had been removed. “Just go via the Thennur Road during rains and you will come to know the situation,” said T. Muthuselvam, DMK.
