Illegal constructions and encroachments are back in focus in the Alappuzha municipal limits.
Amidst uproar in the Alappuzha municipal council meeting on Wednesday after a discussion on illegal constructions snowballed into allegations and counter-allegations, municipal chairman P.P. Chitharanjan announced that the municipality would shortly launch a drive to identify buildings that have violated the municipal building regulations or that have been constructed upon encroached land.
The drive, Mr. Chitharanjan said, would include all constructions that have taken place in the municipal region right from 1995. The public could also point out any constructions that they thought was illegal or having violated the building regulations. A committee that would be set up for the drive would verify the violations and take appropriate action, he said.
Earlier, the regular municipal council meeting ended in chaos after the Congress-led opposition demanded inspections on eight buildings, which they alleged were illegal. However, Mr. Chitharanjan and the ruling Left Democratic Front dispensation in the council said there was no need to restrict the inspection to eight buildings and that the drive should include all buildings from 1995.
The opposition, however, did not accept this and argued that the eight buildings they named should be inspected first. The chairman, ignoring the demand, later announced to the media that the drive would be launched shortly. The opposition, he alleged, was against a comprehensive drive since that would expose the building rule violations many councillors themselves were guilty of.
Mr. Chitharanjan also alleged that a few Opposition councillors had joined hands with a lawyer here to misuse the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The modus operandi was to extract information using the RTI Act on violations by builders and to then blackmail them for huge sums using the information they had in their hands.
