Vijayawada: Not in a position to take action against buildings constructed violating the norms, the state government once again extended the time for processing the applications received under Building Penalisation scheme for another three months. Though it was announced earlier that the deadline for processing the applications was December 31, 2016 it has now been extended till March 31, 2017.
Even after extending the deadline for another three months there was no visible movement in clearing the pending applications under BPS across the state.
As many as 38 per cent of the applications across all municipal corporations and 32 per cent in municipalities were still in various stages of processing across the state. This is the fourth extension that the government has given to clear the pending applications.
The irony is that in the Capital Region Development Authority area, 61 per cent of the applications are pending and 75 per cent of the applications are yet to be cleared in other Urban Development Authorities in the state.
The people are not ready to pay the hefty penalties that the CRDA has imposed on the illegal constructions. As many as 3,927 buildings across the capital region that excludes Vijayawada and Guntur municipal corporations are pending. These are all constructed in rural areas which are abutting cities and many of the owners are reluctant to pay the penalties though they have applied for regularisation.
CRDA director for development control V. Ramudu said the reason behind slow pace of clearing the applications is that the people are not aware of the regulations.
“We hope by the end of the March all the applications will be processed,” he said, adding that most of the applications were pending with missing documents and non-payment of penalties.
