Building rules violations in Ooty to be dealt with seriously

The civic administration has put in place a plan of action to ensure that construction related rules are strictly adhered to in this hill station.

Municipal Commissioner K. Sivakumar told The Hindu on Monday that people should be wary of middlemen who mislead them by stating that buildings put up without proper approval can be regularised.

The municipality can give approval for plans extending over 1,500 sq ft without insisting on clearances from other departments, and up to 2,690 sq ft after getting no objection certificates from the departments of Forest and Agri-engineering and the Geo-Tech Cell, he said.

For commercial structures the approval of the Architecture and Aesthetic Aspects (AAA) Committee, and the Hill Area Conservation Authority (HACA) should be obtained.

The tendency to misuse permits granted for putting up houses was growing, Mr. Sivakumar said adding that it was the main reason for major deviations.

Such misuse was being viewed very seriously, he said. During 2013-14, 12 such buildings have been identified. A ‘Lock and seal’ notice has been served on owners.

The people should start work on putting up buildings only after getting the proper approval. Apart from the municipal officials concerned no one including elected representatives had the right to give the green signal for building activities. The people should not route their applications through middlemen.

The police will be asked to take action against such middlemen.

To a question, he said that the total number of buildings including domestic and commercial in the municipality was 22,000. Of them 1,330 which had been constructed till 2006 in violation of the Hill Area Building Rules have been categorised as unauthorised. With action being initiated against them by the municipality the owners had sought judicial intervention. The matter was pending in a court.

To another question, Mr. Sivakumar said that the municipality was not responsible for Aavin booths mushrooming in the town.

They have been put up at 40 places without obtaining the permission of the municipality.

They were aggravating congestion related problems.