The recent building collapse in Kukatpally that resulted in the death of two labourers emphasises the urgent need for activating the Telangana Municipal Building Tribunal which has been defunct for want of chairperson and members.
Though the Building Tribunal was incorporated by way of an amendment to the GHMC Act in 2016 and rules were framed the subsequent year, the State government has not taken any initiative to appoint a chairperson and other members so far. In doing so, the government has flouted the orders of the Telangana High Court which had directed for constitution of the tribunal in four weeks. Weeks have turned into months, and the calendar has changed, but there is no action on the promise made to the court.
As per the Act, the tribunal should consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members, including judicial as well as technical members.
The chairperson may constitute one or more benches and each bench should comprise at least two members, one judicial and one technical. While the chairperson should be a judicial member who is or has been a district judge, the technical member should be a person working in the cadre of Director of Town and Country Planning in Telangana Town Planning service.
Sources informed that upon the State government’s request, the High Court had recommended the names of two district judges suitable for the post of chairperson, and names of members, too, had been sent by the departments concerned. Yet, there is no clue why the tribunal has not been formed.
Meanwhile, illegal structures are mushrooming everywhere, at times condoned by authorities. Even where action is initiated by issue of notices, the violators quickly resort to legal recourse by getting stay orders, so that they can buy time to manipulate the system.
“Even where the matter is on paper, and the builder has exceeded the number of floors allowed in the building permission, the courts give a long rope to the violator. As per the court’s directions, we need to give seven days’ time for reply after giving show cause notice, and seven more days for correction of the violation, before taking up demolition,” shared an official.
An actively functioning Building Tribunal is hoped to dispose of the cases expeditiously, thus deterring unauthorised construction, he says.
In Kukatpally, the builder went ahead with construction of two unauthorised floors, despite being issued a show cause notice. Owing to the haste with which the construction was sought to be completed post the issue of notices, the structure collapsed, taking with it two precious lives.
Published - January 12, 2023 12:39 am IST
