Hyderabad illegal constructions: Officers at fault face no action

Hyderabad: The Telangana Chief Minister has said that 60,000 violations with regard to constructions have come to light in Greater Hyderabad.

As of Wednesday, 43 structures have been knocked down, but not a single town planning officer has been suspended or questioned, though the Telangana government has been talking of being stringent with corrupt officers.

The total expenditure for 1 square foot in Hyderabad works out to more than Rs1,500. So far, above 1.5 lakh sq ft has been demolished, that amounts to a loss of '20 crore for property buyers.

In recent times, whenever a new government has come to power, it has encouraged penalisation or regularisation schemes in exchange for crores of income.

The GHMC officers have been encouraging illegal constructions, while issuing notices to be on the safe side. Property buyers, on their part, have been approaching the courts and getting stay orders, which the corporation or the standing committee of the GHMC has done nothing to get vacated and in the bargain, the buildings have been completed. And the next government would simply come up with regularisation, impose heavy fines and the officers would get away.

Mr O.M. Debra of Forum For Better Hyderabad said, “The government, before demolishing, should first go through the files or complaints where the public has brought it to the notice of the concerned officer that illegal construction is going on and the officers have not taken any action. First initiate charges against him and if the officer has retired then his pension should be stopped. The other

Town Planning inspectors involved in the illegal act should be demoted and their increment or promotion should be stopped.”
He added, “Every illegal construction has been issued an Occupancy Certificate by the assistant city planner; the GHMC should take note of the Occupancy Certificate and suspend or put the officer under departmental enquiry, this would set an example for the other city planners.”