Poor response to building regularisation scheme

The response from Coimbatore so far to the guidelines by the State Government late last year for regularisation of buildings that have deviated or violated certain norms seems to be lukewarm.

According to the scheme, buildings that need to be regularised in the city should apply to the Corporation and those outside the city limits should apply to the local planning authority.

So far, there was hardly any request from the building owners.

The scheme says that the eligible buildings, which have deviated in issues such as road width, will not have any exemption on safety norms, parking space, pollution control board clearance and electrical clearance.

The building should be constructed before July 2007 and there should be no violation of land use classification.

K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, says the State Government should relax some of the guidelines so that more buildings get regularised. The focus should be on parking and safety norms.

In the case of commercial buildings, parking and safety norms should not be compromised. However, if the building complied with these two norms, then there could be leniency in other factors. The scheme should have separate guidelines for individual residential and commercial buildings. Further, it should be open only for a fixed period.

The penalty is now based on the guideline value. For individual residential buildings, the penalty should be reduced and should not be linked to the guideline value. Buildings, residential and commercial, constructed till the date of the government order should be eligible for the scheme as this was the first time that such a scheme was available for cities other than Chennai in the State, he says.