A cross-section of stakeholders in the reality sector and urban planners feels that the Madras High Court’s order banning registration of plots/houses in unapproved layouts would help building better neighbourhoods.
Akshaya Homes CEO T.Chitty Babu, who was a key officer bearer of CREDAI during the development of the Second Master Plan in 2008 for Chennai Metropolitan Area, said the court order would pave the first step towards development as per master plan.
“Many layouts have been developed violating the provisions of the Second the Master Plan in the past few years. Unauthorised layouts are the major reasons for flooding. Development of plots as per Master Plan is the key to save urban areas from natural calamities,” he said. An authorised layout requires 10 per cent area for Open Space Reserve, 30 per cent area for roads and 5 per cent area for commercial spaces.
“Unauthorised layouts increase the population density, reducing the disaster resilience of the area,” pointed out N.Mathavan, a disaster management expert who developed the disaster resilience index for Chennai.
Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, stressed the need for notifying the amendment in the Registration Act, 1908 made in November 2008 by introducing Section 22 (a), which, among other things, bans the registration of land converted as house site without the approval of the authority concerned. After amending the Act, the government sent the same to the President of India, who accorded his assent in January 2009. The Government then published it in the gazette on March 4, 2009. But it stopped with that and did not notify the amendment.
Hundreds of acres of wetland and dry lands in other parts of the State are being converted into housing plots, with middlemen and real estate firms attracting buyers through advertisements. Many farmers are forced to sell the land at a low price to real estate companies owing to the lack of awareness about how to get the land conversion certificate on their own from the revenue department.
