CHENNAI: One year after Housing Secretary Hitesh Kumar Makwana’s directions to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the planning agency has still failed to convene the meeting of the high court-appointed Monitoring Committee to decide on the fate of 148 buildings seeking regularisation.
Some of these buildings, such as the Abhirami Theatre in Purasaiwalkam, have already undergone changes. The theatre is being renovated while awaiting the CMDA’s decision but the agency has yet to update its list. Asked about the delay in convening the panel, the CMDA member secretary refused to comment while the agency’s spokesperson refused to provide details,
The monitoring committee had been formed by the Madras High Court in 2007 to oversee a scheme to regularise unauthorised buildings constructed before February 2, 1999, under Section 113-A of the Town and Country Planning Act. The committee last met on November 11, 2020.
Members of the panel said they hadn’t received any intimation of a meeting since then. MG Devasahayam, one of the members, said the committee had struggled to fulfil its mandate over the last 15 years. “The committee could not function as the State government was never willing to cooperate, CMDA officials are trying to save their skin and there were multiple chaotic orders from the Madras High Court.”
In 2017, a fresh amnesty scheme, under Section 113-C of the Act, came into being to regularise unauthorised buildings constructed before 2007. But the scheme lapsed on September 21, 2022, and the status and details of applications received under both schemes are unknown. Section 113-C is also facing a legal challenge.
Meanwhile, sources said the present government has not taken a serious view on violations as the planning agency is struggling want quality manpower. Over 250 posts for strengthening enforcement have been pending before the government for the last decade. The enforcement cell, which earlier had three divisions, is now functioning with only two.
Similarly, the regularisation unit, which had three divisions, is now functioning with only one. Both cells also lack support staff. Similarly, the area plans unit, which looks after planning permissions for high-rise and non-high-rise buildings, had six divisions earlier. Now it has only three divisions, sources added, with even newly-recruited staff being underutilised.