MC sleeps while illegal building mushrooms in Janakpuri

Shivani Bhakoo

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 29

A market with 25 shops is coming up in the busy Janakpuri area in utter violation of building bylaws, while the Municipal Corporation authorities prefer to look the other way.

The area falls under the jurisdiction of Zone-B of the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana.

Surprisingly, the structure is being built “quickly” in Zone B area, which comes under two Assistant Town Planners — Pradeep Sehgal and Nirmaljit Verma.

The illegal structure catches an immediate attention of a layman, while officials and the staff of building branch department are yet to take note of the non-compoundable violation.

A complaint was filed against the mushrooming of buildings with Principal Secretary, Local Bodies and Director Local Bodies today by RTI activist Rohit Sabharwal.

Notices under Section-269 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, have already been issued to these under-construction shops.

As a matter of fact and as per the procedure provided under Section-269 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1976, it was the foremost duty of both ATPs to demolish the construction having non-compoundable violations after issuing notice against it.

But in contrast, it seems ample time was provided to the violator to complete the “illegal” building.

What the law says...

Section 269 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, provides a set procedure that has to be followed if a construction is found in violation of building bylaws, 2010. The sub-clause-1 of Section 269 reads: “Where the erection of any building or execution of any work has been commenced, or is being carried on or has been completed without or contrary to the sanction referred to in Section 262 or in contravention of any condition subject to which such sanction has been accorded or in contravention of any of the provisions of this act or bylaws made under, the commissioner may, in addition to any other action that may be taken under this Act, make an order directing that such erection or work shall be demolished by the person at whose instance the erection or work has been commenced or is being carried on or has been completed within such period (not being less than three days from the date on which a copy of the order of demolition with a brief statement of the reasons there for has been delivered to that person as may be specified in the order of demolition).

Modus operandi

When someone files a complaint and a particular matter gets attention, MC’s Building Branch officials/staff, instead of removing the entire non-compoundable violation, remove only some minor violations and update on records that action was taken and non-compoundable violations were removed. The matter gets closed without removing complete non-compoundable violations and the illegal buildings in the city stand tall making a mockery of the system.

Same excuses

For not following their statutory duties, the building branch officials/staff always provide the same set of excuse that there is shortage of staff. But the question arises whether they are performing their duties with sincerity with the available staff and in the past three years, how many “non-violations” were completely demolished by the building branch? The answer is not even in a single building — reasons best known to the staff/officials.

Officialspeak

I have received a copy of the complaint and have asked Pradeep Sehgal - the ATP concerned - to provide a report after which action will be taken accordingly. —Kamaljit Kaur, municipal town planner