Saturday, June 09, 2018

CVC asks Gujarat chief secy to take action in building height issue

Times of India: Surat: Saturday, June 09, 2018.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on a complaint by a Right To Information (RTI) activist has asked the chief secretary, Gujarat Government, to take necessary action into illegal construction of 18 residential buildings which now obstruct the runway path of Surat airport.
RTI activist Sanjay Ezhawa had in April written to CVC demanding an inquiry against the central and state government authorities, including the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), for alleged irregularities that facilitated the construction of 18 residential buildings in violation of the terms and conditions of no objection certificate (NOC) issued by the AAI.
In the letter, he had pointed out that the RTI data given by SMC and AAI revealed that 18 residential buildings towards Vesu side of the runway at Surat airport were obstructing the landing of aircraft. The builders and architects provided proper data to all the authorities, including AAI for obtaining NOCs, but the coordinates at the time of obtaining NOCs were different from the original sites that were surveyed in 2017.
The NOCs of the 18 projects were issued between 2007 and 2013. The AAI did the area inspection in 2007 and 2017. The illegal construction of the buildings was taken up in the gap of 10 years when no survey was done.
As per the terms and conditions of the NOC, if the builders, developers or architects provided wrong information, the NOC stood cancelled and the structures needed to be demolished.
“The CVC has asked the chief secretary through the letter dated May 17 to carry out investigation into the issue of building height of 18 residential properties which obstruct the runway path. I hope that the chief secretary will carry out a free and fair probe for the development of Surat airport,” Ezhawa said.