The Tribune: Bathinda: Wednesday, July 05, 2017.
The building
branch of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) is again under scanner for
going soft against violations of building by-laws and illegal change of land
use.
The
regulatory and enforcement work of the building branch is confined to issuing
notices for violations or at best composition of offences in a hush-hush
manner, which is evident from proliferating illegal building activity in the
city.
Against
information sought through RTI Act over the number of notices issued to illegal
buildings in the city during the last five years, the MCB has given incomplete
information.
The office
has given information pertaining to around 260 notices issued in the last five
years from February 1, 2012 to April 30, 2017.
Nothing has
been revealed about the action taken after issuing the notices.
It is also
surprising that most of the 260 notices are sent under Sections 259, 260, 261
and 262 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976.
In these
notices, directions or warnings on demolishing the building have been given but
hardly any building has been demolished.
However, a
few months ago, officials of the building branch had tabled a report of 115
illegal buildings in the last two years from 2015 to 2017.
It has also
come to the notice that various big hospitals, beer bars and showrooms have
come up in the city without map approval or in violation of by-laws but no
action has been taken by the building branch.
There are
many big hospitals that have not been issued a single notice, let alone taking
action against them.
The building
branch has not been able to instill fear of law among those carrying out
illegal construction of commercial complexes and making blatant violations of land
use.
Residents are
also fed up with the building branch officials. Many complaints of corruption
have also been lodged with higher officials but till date, no action has been
taken against any official.
Municipal
Councillors Pardeep Gola and Sukhwinder Kaur said first the MC committed
irregularities in issuing notices by terming some buildings illegal and sent
notices of demolition, but later, it hardly took any such action. Leaders also
claim that they fail to understand how illegal buildings come up under the
‘watchful’ eye of officials. They said they would raise the issue in the
general house meeting over no action taken despite sending notices.
In 2011, then
BJP councillor late Krishan Garg had raised the issue of illegal buildings in
the general house meeting after which a sub-committee was constituted.
It had come
out that 874 illegal buildings had come up from 2002 to 2011 but no action had
ever been initiated by the MCB. At that time, an illegal building at Hanuman
Chowk was demolished after getting approval from the general house but now,
this building has again been constructed and an ice cream parlour is running
here.
Mayor Balwant
Rai Nath said they would take strict action against the illegal buildings in
the city once the terms of the regularisation policy were clear.