The IT hub of Thrikkakara has come under the radar of the Department of Urban Affairs for being home to over 100 unauthorised structures. The buildings were constructed mainly on the strength of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) issued while Thrikkara was still a panchayat.
Now, Thrikkakara tops the list of municipalities in the State with the maximum number of illegal buildings. The regularisation of buildings has now become a bone of contention between the government and the municipal body.
While the government wants them to be regularised through the payment of the compounding fee fixed, the municipality is against any move to make the occupants of the buildings cough up an “exorbitant” fee.
The issue has taken a serious turn with a few builders being pulled up, making a policy decision by the government imperative, a senior urban affairs department official told The Hindu .
Massive investments have been made and hundreds of people are occupying the structures that had no correlation with the Kerala Municipal Building Rules (KMBR). The government finds itself in a quandary with the affected parties now claiming impunity citing the penalty they had already paid.
Municipal chairman P.I. Mohammadali said the NOCs issued before KMBR became applicable should be given due validity.
He said occupants of the structures were neither super rich to pay the hefty compounding fee nor were the builders going to pay it, unless they got it from the occupants.
Besides, many of the files from the panchayat term were either missing or had been misplaced, he said.
“Treating these structures as unauthorised and slapping them with three fold tax is not going to work. Instead, the government should fix a fair fine and settle once and for all an issue that has been costing both the government and the municipality huge revenue income,” Mr. Mohammadali said.
He said the municipality could not assign numbers to the structures, leaving its occupants to face several hardships. “For instance, the residents cannot get a resident certificate or register a vehicle in that address,” he said.
