The Hindu
Mangalore, Nov 12: In its efforts to prevent building violations in the area under its jurisdiction, the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) has now introduced a new system of making it mandatory for owners, promoters and builders to file affidavits with it stating that the approved building plans will not be violated by them.
The rule applies to construction of both commercial and residential buildings. The new system has been introduced after Sameer Shukla, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, took charge as the Commissioner of the corporation sometime ago.
By filing the affidavits with the MCC, the owners, promoters and builders will be owning the responsibility for any violations of building plans committed by them during construction.
This system is expected to put some break on the violation of building plans in the city. The violations of building plans may relate to provisions for parking space, encroachment, safety norms and construction of additional floors, among others.
Building violations have been a topic of debate among people at various forums in the city.
Some non-governmental organisations have been urging the corporation to put an end to it for quite sometime now.
“If the corporation finds that owners or promoters of a building have not adhered to the approved building plan, the corporation can resort to demolition of such buildings based on the affidavits filed by them,” Mr. Shukla told The Hindu.
“However, if the owners feel, while the construction of their building is under way, that some alterations are needed, they can obtain permission/licence from the corporation for the changes,” he added.
To a question, the Commissioner denied allegations from a few councillors that the corporation was not issuing fresh building licences after he took over. “This is not true. If they want, let them file an application under the Right to Information Act and know how many licences have been issued after I took over,” Mr. Shukla said.
He said that the corporation could issue licences for constructing houses in layouts which had been approved by the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). “The corporation cannot issue licences for buildings in layouts which have no provision for basic amenities,” he said.
In cases such as the builders violating the rules while constructing the ground floor itself, the corporation could not licences. The corporation had not withheld any files for issuing licences to build houses in MUDA-approved layouts, he said.
Replying to another question, Mr. Shukla said that the Government had not yet approved the city corporation council’s resolution for condoning a 10-per cent deviation from the approved building plan here.