In Tamil Nadu, in various cities including Chennai, the number of apartment buildings being built in violation of the rules has increased drastically.
Complaints related to this are not heeded by the city, urban development department DTCP, Chennai Metropolitan Development Corporation CMDA and local authorities.
Only when the victims file a case in court, action is taken against the buildings concerned. Proceedings initiated by a court order are not fully completed.
Many officials are acting in abeyance to the construction companies and building owners who violate the rules. The court’s grip on some illegal construction cases has put the housing department under pressure.
New notification
In this case, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a new notification as a government order, compiling the procedures for taking action against illegal buildings as per the Urban Planning Act.
Details of how the authorities should process complaints, field inspections, giving ‘notices’, ‘sealing’ and appeals are given in this.
In this regard, urban planning experts said:
There is a lack of coordination and transparency in granting planning permission and taking action against illegal buildings in CMDA, DTCP, which operates under the Urban Planning Act.
There are no adequate posts and staff in the concerned departments to take action against the violating buildings.
In local bodies, the authorities themselves are not aware of the action taken against illegal buildings.
What is the position of the Housing Department in the case of illegal buildings constructed after July 2007; What is the action against officials who are negligent in this; Questions arise as to why they are not held accountable.
At present, these procedures published by the housing department are only ‘paper flowers’. This is of no use.
This is a measure taken by the housing department to mitigate the crisis by pointing out these practices in certain cases.
Thus they said.