The Hindu       12.01.2011

Building permit guidelines relaxed

The government has simplified norms for constructing residential buildings up to 300 sq.m. in areas marked as green strips in the Thiruvananthapuram master plan.

An official release issued here on Tuesday said that permit would be given to plots having compound wall, dry cultivation, lying adjacent to buildings constructed with approval and those having road access, drinking water, drainage and power supply. Those satisfying any one of the conditions will get permission. An earlier norm that plots registered before January 1, 2008, alone should be considered for granting permission has also been scrapped.

Suspended

An assistant engineer of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation C. Ramachandran and an overseer Sisupalan were suspended from service for delaying the issue of building permit. The action was taken after an inquiry conducted by a senior town planner on the basis of a complaint received at the Local Administration Minister's office.

The Hindu         12.01.2011

Officials inspect illegal religious structures

Clear structures in two days, management committees told

A team of officials, led by Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta, inspected nearly 20 illegal religious structures here on Tuesday.

The Deputy Commissioner held discussions with heads and representatives of the management committees and the trusts of the places of worship and reportedly told them to clear the illegal structures in two days, failing which the administration would remove them.

Mr. Gupta was accompanied by Mysore City Corporation Commissioner K.S. Raykar, Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) secretary Vidya Kumari and assistant commissioners of all MCC zonal offices.

During the inspection, the officials told a group of residents at BEML Nagar, who objected to the proposed eviction of a place of worship in their locality, that they had been directed to carry out the task as per the law.

Mr. Gupta drew attention to the Supreme Court's directive that all illegal places of worship across the country had to be cleared.

He said that notices had been issued to 210 places of worship and ‘aralikattes'.

The district administration may take up a drive against illegal shrines after Makara Sankranti on January 15. It will be conducted in two phases.

The district administration had held meetings with trustees of places of worship, which had been categorised as “unauthorised” and sought their cooperation.

On the instructions of Mr. Gupta, the MCC had conducted a survey and had identified 210 places of worship constructed in violation of the law.