BPS applicants pour out their woes

December 07, 2009 08:22 pm | Updated 08:22 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA

The Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) turned out to be an ordeal for people, who gave a vent to their nightmarish experiences at a meeting organised by the Tax Payers Association (TPA) here on Sunday.

The applicants raised hue and cry over what they called ‘sordid state of affairs’, in Town Planning wing of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). The applicants expressed the view that the Corporation officials were looking at the BPS as a “money spinner”.

The rules of the scheme became a bane for the taxpayers as the officials were interpreting them as per their convenience, they alleged.

“At the time of submitting application we were told that the penal amount would be Rs. 12,000. Now, they (officials) jacked up the penal amount to Rs. 88,700. I don’t feel there is any justice in it,” said Y. Prabhavathi, a resident of Madhura Nagar. There are many others. who complained that their penal charges were increased abnormally, and in some instances it even crossed Rs. 1 lakh.

“The engineer issued the structural stability certificate even without examining my house completely. It’s just a mockery of the rules,” said S.P. Rao of Krishnalanka.

Different predicament

And, for D.V. Subba Rao, a resident of Satyanarayanapuram, and his neighbours, it was a different predicament. Mr. Subba Rao and three others (as against a total of five neighbours) paid the entire penal amount by July 2009. But, they were not issued the approved plans so far. However, the fifth house owner, who paid the penal amount in an adalat, was sanctioned the revised plan, he said. Likewise, Francis of Mutyalampadu and his three neighbours paid the entire amount. But, the approved plans were not issued so far to them.

Prabhakara Sastry and others of Satyanarayanapuram stated that he received endorsement couple of days ago asking to submit the documents. The officials could trace our applications only after running from pillar to post in the Corporation.

All relevant documents, including sanctioned plan, were given at the time of submission of the application. Now, the officials are again asking to produce the same once again. It’s a sordid state of affairs, they felt.

An apartment owner in Ayodhya Nagar lamented that he does not have blue print of his flat or the apartment. “I purchased the flat from the first user sometime ago. Now, neither the builder nor the first dweller is available. I worried about the fate of my flat,” he said.

The TPA president V. Sambi Reddy and secretary M.V. Anjaneyulu said they would submit a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna to look into these issues, and also allow the people to pay the penal amount in instalments.

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