CMDA plans amendment to section 113-C to delegate powers to local bodies to regularize ordinary buildings

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is planning to send a proposal to the government to amend Section 113-C to delegate powers to all local bodies within Chennai Metropolitan Area for processing the ordinary building applications.

At present the delegation of powers for processing ordinary buildings lies with the local body and CMDA is processing only special buildings, multi-storied buildings, major institutions and industries. However, as per the Rules notified in 113-C by the government even the ordinary buildings in town and village panchayats are to be processed by CMDA.

As such proposed amendment is sought to enable CMDA to delegate the powers to the local bodies for processing of applications pertaining to Ordinary Buildings under 113C, sources said.

Interestingly, this comes in the wake of High Court appointed Monitoring Committee asking for clarity on Section 113 C and seeking judicial sanction before exempting buildings developed on or before July 1, 2007.

“How can they proceed for amending the Section 113 C when they don’t have the judicial sanction for the act itself, wondered monitoring committee member M G Deivasahayam.

The other major hurdle for CMDA in implementing section 113-C is lack of staff. It is believed that at present the regularization unit with skeletal staff is looking after the 1999 regularisation scheme and it won’t be enough to process the applications.

Sources said There are about 20,000 Applications received so far and they have to be disposed by the regularization unit.  Among these applications, 15,000 are for residential buildings for which the monitoring committee has suggested less stringent measures, sources added.

Sources said these 15,000 applications would be taken up only after the advocate general gives his opinion and is being approved by the Government. In addition to this, the unit also has to scrutinise 5,000 commercial applications. 

Sources also said the CMDA will also face a big challenge on which masterplan to follow while regularizing the building. Currently, the first masterplan has elapsed and the second master plan is put into effect. So the regularization unit has to go through both the master plans before clearing the application. Sources said if the land usage does not satisfy the land use prevailing on July 1, 2007 but satisfies present land use under second master plan, then the same may be considered provided it satisfies the present car parking requirements.