JOIN USOnline building approvals for smaller sites deferred
According to Palike sources, a letter has been dispatched from the Mayor’s office to BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah for deferring the online plan approval to ensure that people are ‘familiarised’ with the system. However, for approval of plans for sites measuring over 40 x 60 sq ft, property owners have been directed sternly to file their applications for online approval from the Palike.
Even the plans of the above mentioned properties have to be approved online after the expiry of the January grace period, but sources talk about possible deferment of the online approval of building plans for the 30 x 40 and 40 x 60 sq feet sites till March end, coinciding with the end of tenure for Mayor S K Nataraj.
The online building approval proposal conceived earlier this year, has been considered ‘mandatory’ by the Centre to release grants under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme.
Accordingly, in September this year, it was stated that the Palike building approval plan will go online for ensuring transparency in the system.
Opposition within
However, as soon as the proposal was made, the plan approvals going online was resisted by the Palike officials and from outside by touts.
The Palike Town Planning Department in November stated that after much deliberation, the system was given the green signal by the Palike commissioner. “We finally received the direction from the commissioner for the online building plan approval earlier last month,” informed a Palike official.
The Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance, which received the proposal, returned it to the Town Planning Department for ensuring that “able hands” were recruited to operate the system across the eight zones of the BBMP.
“The personnel deputed to Palike from the IT Department lack the capacity to operate Autocad. We need people with experience to handle the system across all the zones. But none have arrived,” said a Standing Committee member.
135 applications
It is learnt that the Town Planning Department has already uploaded on their system nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the property details related to their plan approval. But none have been approved. Since October 1, the BBMP till date has received 135 applications for building plan approval.