“Building violations near Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple started in 1968 itself”

Advocate Commissioners seek time to ascertain exact number of violators

A view of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple. File Photo

A 1997 Government Order prohibits construction of buildings above nine metres in height within a radius of one km from the outer walls of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here. But buildings as tall as 30 metres had been constructed with plan approval obtained way back in 1968, according to advocate commissioners appointed by the Madras High Court Bench here.

In an interim report submitted before the court, commissioners S. Ramesh and V. Sitharanjandas said that so far they had identified 547 buildings constructed above the permissible height.

However, the issue as to whether all of them had violated the G.O. could not be ascertained as the Municipal Corporation was yet to provide details of the dates on which plan approvals were granted to them.

The commissioners said that the dates could not be found out from the occupants of the buildings as most of them were occupied by tenants who did not possess the plan approval orders. Some of the building owners and tenants refused to cooperate in measuring the height of their properties despite the presence of Corporation officials, the commissioners complained.

A few other building owners claimed to have obtained building plan permissions when Madurai was a municipality before being upgraded as a Corporation on May 1, 1971. “We require the Corporation to furnish the plan approval orders from which we can identify the year of construction. Only then we can identify the buildings to which we can apply the 1997-G.O.,” the commissioners said.

They added that so far buildings in Amman Sannathi street, the four Chithirai streets, East Avani Moola Street and their by-lanes alone had been inspected.

A Division Bench had appointed the commissioners in a batch of writ petitions filed by advocate A.S.M. Kumar alias S. Muthukumar, J. Kiran Devi and Manthoppu Desa Kavar Balija Eloor Chettiars Mahajana Sabai.

Mr. Muthukumar had accused the Corporation of failing to take action against height restriction violators. He pointed out that the G.O. issued by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department on January 30, 1997, prohibited construction of buildings over nine metres tall within the radius of ancient temples in 38 historical sites in the States. Madurai was one among the 38 sites.