Illegal construction: No notices issued against over 15,000 buildings, admit Ludhiana MC ATPs
The revelation came to the fore during the ongoing inquiry marked by the municipal commissioner to MC additional commissioner Rishipal Singh into the illegal buildings
At the time of uproar over illegal constructions in the city by councillors and other individuals, Ludhiana municipal corporation’s (MC’s) assistant town planners (ATPs) have admitted that there are 15,000 to 16,000 buildings in the city to which, the inspectors have failed to issue notices.
This revelation came to the fore during the ongoing inquiry marked by the municipal commissioner to MC additional commissioner Rishipal Singh into the illegal buildings.
In the month of July, Punjab local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra had directed the authorities to conduct a comparative inquiry to find out the illegal constructions by comparing the new connections issued by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and the building plans sanctioned by the civic body during the period between 2016 and 2019.
The inquiry was marked following a complaint submitted by RTI activist Rohit Sabharwal.
Sabharal had alleged that the MC suffered a revenue loss of around ₹50 crore due to its failure to take against the illegal constructions.
The building branch of the civic body has now submitted a report with Rishipal Singh wherein ATPs of all the four zones of MC have stated that there are at least 15,000 structures in the city against which, no notices have been issued by the building inspectors.
A list of building inspectors who failed to perform their duty has also been attached.
One of the officials, on the condition of anonymity, said there might be a bigger number of buildings with compoundable violations (which can be regularised).
“But the MC still needs to issue notices/challans against them to recover composition fee,” he added.
Municipal town planner Surinder Singh Bindra said, “The ATPs have mentioned that there are 15,000 to 16,000 buildings against which no notices/challans have been issued in the past. The report has now been sent to MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal and additional commissioner Rishipal Singh for further action.”