THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An agonised look that A P Archibald, a senior citizen living in the city, wore on his face also reflected on the faces of over 300 applicants who had gathered at the council lounge where the town planning mega adalat on building permits was held on Monday. All of them had come armed with multiple sets of documents, a result of many unsuccessful visits to the corporation or the town planning offices, to air their grievances before the Minister of Local Government K T Jaleel.
Archibald too had a large file with him. Some of the documents dated back to 1987. The file is a proof of how red tape can turn the life of an NRI upside down.
Archibald, who had been employed in the Gulf, had to look into a property issue when came on holiday in 1985. The property belonged to his wife Elaine. He decided to settle in the city and began a long legal war to oust the tenants occupying his property illegally.
And thus began his long interaction with the corporation officials, Vanchiyoor village office and regional town planners office. “The officials force us to visit their departments multiple times. At the same them they conspire with the other parties to destroy evidence, create confusion and deliberately make mistakes to delay the files from getting processed,” said the 73-year-old.
In his case, problems continued to plague him even after he got his building regularised and had paid tax till 2009. “One fine day the official at the corporation said he did not have any of my files. He said the files could be with Revenue Department or the Town Planning office.
I didn’t lose the files, they did,” said Archibald. He alleged the officials deliberately entered wrong data when digitisation of the offices took place. He, however, hoped that the mega adalat would solve his problems.
The Gulf-returnee, who is now well-versed in the rules and regulations, said he will go to any extend to get justice. “If this adalat doesn’t solve anything, I may approach the court. I cannot tolerate this attitude of the officials,” said the septuagenarian.
Archibald’s allegations resonated in those raised by Peer Khan, another senior citizen who had come here from Plamoodu. This army veteran too stands firm in his resolve to get justice.
According to the rules, an application for a building permit has to be processed within one month. But red tape and corruption involving the officials and the commission agents, force the public to wait longer.
Mayor V K Prasanth was in the forefront in organising the the adalat. He issued directions to the officials regarding crowd management. The adalat received 302 applications. All applications which were one month or older were accepted at the adalat. But when more people turned up, the Mayor promised to look into their cases too.
The adalat may be extended by one more day in order to give opportunity to other applicants too.