VISAKHAPATNAM: The Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS), which was introduced to bring unauthorised constructions in the city into the planning fold, saw only 43 per cent applications being processed on Monday, the last date for the disposal of applications. The GVMC received 13,286 applications under the scheme before its closure on January 31. However, considering the large number of pending applications, the state government extended the last date on Tuesday to Nov. 30.
According to GVMC officials, about 5,868 applications were disposed of by Tuesday, while 7,399 applications are in the processing stage. About 15 applications were rejected for various reasons. If all the 13,200 (except the rejections) constructions are regularised, it would fetch about Rs 76 crore to the GVMC. Meanwhile, the BPS website was down for a few hours on Monday.
Considering the initial lukewarm response and confusion over online submission of applications, the Department of Municipal Administra-tion had extended the last date thrice. Now, the last date of application processing has been extended twice. GVMC in-charge chief city planner B. Suresh Kumar said constructions falling in the road-widening portion were not eligible for the BPS. “However, the remaining portion is eligible for penalisation after handing over the affected portion to the urban local body. We had given info to the applicants those who did not produce all the required documents or haven’t paid the penalty to utilise the opportunity. Constructions made in the government lands, parking areas and the CRZ zone are also not applicable for penalisation,” Mr. Suresh Kumar added.
