The State Government’s move to rake in more money through introduction of Building Penalisation Scheme is not evoking the desired response from the building owners till date. The notification for the scheme was issued on May 22 and not many applications have been received by major municipal corporations like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.
While, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) officials claimed to have received about 1,200 applications. It organised a meeting with corporators, building owners and licenced surveyors to create awareness among them. During the meeting, builders and licensed surveyors suggested that there should be a provision for manual application as the entire process is made online, licensed surveyors, architects, and licensed engineers have a key role to play. More importantly, payments have to be made online through debit or credit cards and internet banking and many are not well-versed with the practice.
Worried over the poor feedback, the corporation officials intensified efforts to create awareness among building owners. Building inspectors have been deployed in respective divisions to identify structures that were constructed in violation of rules.
They will specifically mark such structures with red colour, enabling the owners and corporation officials to initiate the process for regularising the structures.
In addition to this, exclusive counters have been established by the corporation at its head office and the three municipal circle offices to facilitate building owners to submit their applications. “The deadline for filing applications is July 27 and we are expecting to receive 15,000 applications. BPS will fetch us nearly Rs.100 crore,” said VMC Commissioner G. Veerapandian. The corporation had received more than 10,000 applications and earned around Rs. 53 crore through the scheme in 2007.
If any owner or builder fails to apply within the stipulated time, he will be liable for action under the law.
The buildings constructed illegally will also be liable for action, and applications for their regularisation would not be entertained, he explained.
The application fee is Rs. 10,000, and the balance penal charges on intimation by the competent authority will have to be paid within 30 days from the date of intimation. Penal amounts paid are not refundable.
Officials inform that this was mainly because of lack of awareness among building owners and few technical aspects faced by applicants in uploading the details on the website: www.bps.ap.gov.in.
So far 800 applications have been received by the GVMC. Authorities have conducted two meetings with licensed surveyors to create awareness on applying for BPS and on the rules to be followed at the main office.
In each of the zones one meeting was held. Help-desks are set up to guide people at the main office and zone offices. According to Deputy Chief City Planner Venkatasubbaiah, ward-level meetings are being planned to create further awareness. Banners have been put up and pamphlets are being distributed and officials expect to receive 10,000 applications.
The scenario is even worse in Tirupati as only 35 applications have been received by the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT). Officials have gone into a campaign mode by installing banners and distributing pamphlets to create awareness.
Engineers and surveyors were also made to attend a few awareness meetings and despite this many were countering problems in online payment. Another drawback is that the officials are not able to generate application through the module, to people who have built their houses before 2014 as they should possess the tax receipt.
(With inputs from
G.V. Prasada Sarma from Visakhapatnam
and B. Venkat Sandeep from Tirupati)
