THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation's new proposal has come as a sigh of relief for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) beneficiaries whose plots fall in the red zone. A survey will be conducted on a cost-sharing basis by the Corporation in association with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) in order to provide the PMAY beneficiaries the required no-objection certificate (NOC). The beneficiaries do not have to pay for the survey.
As many as 10 wards of the Corporation fall under the red zone area. A specialized survey, done by authorised agencies, which is a costly affair, is mandatory for issuing NOC. However, a major issue faced by the PMAY housing beneficiaries is that they have to make use of the service of authorized surveyors who charge around Rs 20,000. Allowing a relaxation on the cost, the local body and AAI have decided to bear the expense exclusively for the sake of the PMAY beneficiaries.
At a recent council meet the Corporation said they have assigned a new agency, M/S DB Consulting Service, to conduct the specialised survey at a cost of Rs 4,000. The agency will be responsible to draw the survey design for the PMAY beneficiaries and the local body and AAI will pay Rs 2,000 each to the agency. Such a decision was taken in the wake of the complaints from various beneficiaries regarding the exorbitant rate asked by the agencies. Based on the surveyed data, airport director will process the cases and will issue the NOC," said a corporation official.
According to the corporation official, the progress of Centre's PMAY housing scheme had been affected in the city as a large number of PMAY beneficiaries had their houses proposed in red zone requiring them to get an NOC from AAI to get building number from the city corporation. As many as 1112 beneficiaries out of total 7,877 beneficiaries included in five detailed project reports (DPR) had their houses proposed in red zone. Last year AAI had notified the revised version of Colour-Coding Zoning Map (CCZM), in which red zone was reduced by almost 70 per cent. In spite of revisions, the PMAY beneficiaries continue to battle the crisis regarding the red zone. The City Corporation is striving towards a special permission on NOC exemption exclusively for housing schemes.