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R.Y. Narayanan

COIMBATORE, July 24

THE announcement of the Chief Minister, Ms J.Jayalalithaa, that the Cabinet, on July 25, would take a `just decision' on the demands for reduction in the building regularisation fee in respect of unauthorised constructions has kindled hopes of a considerable lightening of the financial burden for the people.

There is a feeling that the Government should seize the opportunity for a comprehensive revamp of the rules concerning the approval issue since multiple GOs dealing with the approval of unapproved layouts and regularisation of unauthorised constructions/deviated constructions have created uncertainty about crucial issues.

Moreover by extending the last date for submission of applications under the regularisation scheme to Dec 31, from the earlier July 31, Ms Jayalalithaa has also sought to take the wind out of the sails of the Opposition campaign in Coimbatore. The latter had called for a bandh on July 31.

A re-look at the scheme has been on the cards with hectic parleys in the past few days at the official level on this issue at the State-level and the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Dr D. Karthikeyan, who had taken part in such a meeting in Chennai last week, again rushed to Chennai on Monday for discussions.

A section of MLAs from Coimbatore have also met the Finance Minister Mr C. Ponnaiyan and the Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, to apprise them of the growing opposition among the people to the scheme, which would put a heavy financial burden on them.

There is uncertainty among the public as to whether their layouts would get civic amenities once the constructions are regularised. This is because the GO says `the scheme will not cover regularisation of unauthorised layouts'.

During informal discussions, the authorities indicated that one of the proposals under consideration was that the cost of reserve sites of such colonies may be shared proportionately by the residents. While this may be workable in case of layouts where buildings have come up in all plots, it may pose problems in colonies where only part of the layout sites have been sold or buildings have come up on only a few of them.

There is also a fear that this may work to the advantage of the developers of layouts, where not all the plots have been sold out since they could make lesser payment in lieu of the land to be given as reserve site, which is normally 10 per cent of the layout area, as the area for which they would be seeking approval would be less.

It is felt that the Government should come out with a comprehensive order, replacing a plethora of GOs that covered regularisation of unapproved layouts and unapproved constructions made there on to avoid conflicting interpretations.

But the Government seems to be determined to tighten the rules to ensure that unapproved layouts do not come up in future. The earlier DMK government banned registration of unapproved layouts without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the local body concerned, which virtually blocked fresh sale of plots in such layouts.

Now the Chairman of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, Mr K. Gnanadesikan, in an order issued on July 4, has instructed all Chief Engineers of Distribution Regions and Superintending Engineers of Distribution Circles "to insist to produce planning permission for developments along with completion certificate from the competent authority while a person applies for power connection."

The board shall refuse power connection if the applicant failed to comply with the requirement.

As the competent authority would not give plan approval for constructions in unapproved layouts, the TNEB fiat virtually brings the curtains down on such constructions in future.

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