KOCHI: The NRI businessman’s suicide over red tape at the Anthoor municipality which put the government in a spot has its repercussions on all local self governments across the state. The Local Self Government Department has suspended Kochi Corporation superintending engineer C. M Sulaiman from the service for the inordinate delay in issuing a building permit.
The disciplinary action is based on a complaint submitted by V. I Baby a resident of Kadavanthra. The complainant alleged that the official deliberately kept the file containing his application for more than 10 months without any substantial reasons.
The superintending engineer has made corrections in the dates in the files when he came to know about the complaint, reveals the order issued by Minimol Abraham, additional secretary of LSGD. “The action of SE, a senior official who heads the engineering wing, is corruption, breach of duty and serious indiscipline. Hence, the official is suspended from service as part of inquiry into the matter,” according to the government order.
According to the Kerala Municipal Building Rules 1999, applications for building permits have to be settled in 30 days.
Corporation executive engineer Titus H has been given the additional charge of superintending engineer.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Anthoor controversy, the government has issued a circular on June 24 instructing the panchayats to clear applications for building permit within 15 days.
Meanwhile, Mayor Soumini Jain said that in the wake of the incident, she directed the Secretary to take stock of pending applications.
The Corporation will also conduct a building permit adalat in July as per the government order.
