Engineers slam proposed one-time settlement policy

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 10

Slamming the Punjab Government for the proposed ‘one-time settlement (OTS) policy to compound illegal buildings across the city, the Council of Engineers (CoE) has termed such illegal buildings, particularly in the city, as ticking time bombs. Making it clear that the body would challenge this veiled attempt to regularise all illegal constructions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the engineers’ body said the government wanted to protect the corrupt officials of local bodies while at the same time it was granting favour to the builders’ lobby.

In a formal complaint against officials of the MC building branch and engineering branches of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) and the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) for their criminal negligence and active connivance with those behind illegal constructions in the city, the CoE has said rather than going for indiscriminate regularisation of non-compoundable violations, the government should have taken exemplary penal action against the employees and officials of the MC, LIT and GLADA.

In the complaint filed to the Chief Minister, the Local Bodies Minister, the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab; and the Additional Chief Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Punjab, CoE president Kapil Arora has said despite introduction of ‘Building Bylaws’ from time to time, the violations have continued due to active connivance of such corrupt officials.

“Particularly, the condition in the industrial capital of the state (Ludhiana) has worsened with time due to flourishing nexus of officials and builders. The Punjab government had introduced PAPRA Act in 1995 to have planned growth and better place to live in. However, due to gross negligence as well as active connivance with the owners of the buildings by supervisory officials and field staff of bodies such as the MC, LIT and GLADA, all these laws have proved to be toothless tigers,” said the complaint.

It has been further alleged in the complaint that almost 90 per cent of buildings in private colonies are being constructed with 100 per cent coverage, along with projections above the roads, in many cases. Even in colonies approved by GLADA, almost 75 per cent of buildings have violations of one kind or the other. “Moreover, construction and illegal extensions are going on at the upper floors of existing buildings too which are quite old and foundations of these buildings are also not designed to bear load of new construction,” says the complaint.

According to the CoE, structural safety of the buildings has been ignored in the construction of new illegal buildings and extension of the existing ones which being unsafe could collapse at any time and result in fatal injuries to people and damage to nearby buildings. Further, the MC has made no provisions of submission of ‘structural safety certificates’ in ‘online building plan system’. “It is a well-known fact that Punjab falls in Zone 4 as per IS Codes which means, Punjab is at very high level of seismic activity making such illegal (and unsafe) buildings like ticking time bombs for the city,” the complaint says.