In a bid to urge the Tamil Nadu government to issue building plan approvals to housing sites in layouts formed after 1989, members of Association of Builders for Chennai Development (ABCD) had taken part in a day-long fast last week.
The members said that at present, only those residential plots registered before December 1989 are approved under the regularisation, and building plan approvals are currently not issued by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Chennai Corporation and other local bodies, empowered by the government, to issue the approvals.
The protesting builders said that after the implementation of the Second Master Plan, most of the land in Chennai, especially in areas that were merged with the Corporation in 2011, were classified as Primary Residential Zone.
In the newly merged areas, necessary basic infrastructure were already in place — be it, availability of drinking water, underground drainage network, power supply and proper road connectivity. And yet, the local planning authorities were not issuing building plan approvals for sites that come in layouts formed after 1989, builders said. Thousands of families were affected as they were unable to construct independent homes, they added.
By agreeing to issue the building plan approvals through the local planning authorities, the State government could mop up considerable revenue by way of collection of various charges from the applicants while issuing the approvals. In the city and suburbs alone, the charges realised this way could earn the State exchequer, a few thousand crore rupees every year, they said.
The members also recalled that builders and licensed surveyors have been struggling for a long time, appealing to the State government to issue building approvals in housing layouts formed from 1989 at least till 2007.
