After issuing a strong statement against construction of unauthorised buildings, violating established norms, in the city, Collector Anshul Mishra, on Friday, oversaw the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and Corporation officials stop construction work on two huge buildings, one near Tallakulam and another near the A.V. Bridge.
The first victim of this drive by the Collector, who is also the Chairperson of LPA, was a five-storey hospital building with a ground floor and basement, under construction at the Old Post Officer Road at Tallakulam.
Officials led by the Member (Secretary) of the LPA, C. Baskar Thondaiman, and the Assistant Commissioner of Corporation, A. Devadoss, and Chief Town Planning Officer M. Rakkappan ordered a halt in the construction work at the hospital building. The Collector also inspected the work here.
Lot of construction materials and furniture from the hospital were seized. Mr. Baskar said that a notice sent to the building owner had returned to the LPA, following which the officials went there to paste the notice. The building owner had sought permission from the Corporation for the multi-storey building for over 21,000 square feet.
The Collector, in a statement issued on Sunday, had said that 28 buildings had been identified to have violated the building norms. The Corporation has the authority to give building plan approval for only 2,000 square feet for commercial buildings and up to 4,000 square feet for residential buildings.
“The plan approval was signed “for the Corporation Commissioner”, and the LPA Member (Secretary). We have no record of the LPA having cleared the plan, which means the signature of the Secretary had been forged. We are planning to initiate criminal proceedings against the people who had forged the documents,” Mr. Mishra said. Later, when the officials went to another multi-storey building under construction at Azhwarpuram near the A.V. Bridge, except for an aged watchman, no one was available. “
The LPA notice pasted in this building read that since the building under construction did not have permission from the LPA under the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, it was an unauthorised structure.
The owner has been asked to remove the building and restore the site as it used to be before construction within 30 days, failing which the building would be removed, without any prior notice, under Sections 56 and 57. “Since the restoration notice has been issued, the LPA has the authority to demolish it,” the Collector added.
