CHENNAI: Property owners who fail to comply with the new corporation guidelines for maintaining vacant lands will face penalties of up to Rs 25,000, with an additional fine of Rs 500 per day for repeated violations. A resolution was passed to this effect in the council on Wednesday.
The move is aimed at preventing public health concerns arising from poorly maintained vacant lands that allow for breeding of mosquitoes and other pests, and garbage accumulation.
Landowners are now required to regularly monitor their properties to ensure that garbage, construction debris, overgrown vegetation, and stagnant water are cleared promptly.
Proper fencing, drainage systems, and vector control measures must be in place. Waste must be disposed of in line with SWM 2016 norms. The owners must share their address and contact to the revenue officials in zones so that they can be contacted in case of complaints of poor maintenance, the resolution stated. During inspection, the land owners must cooperate, it said.
In cases of non-compliance, the corporation will issue a formal notice. If the issue is not resolved within seven days, the GCC will clean the site using its own resources or contractors. The cost of cleanup, Rs 5800 (up to five tonnes of waste ) and Rs 11,600 (up to 10 tonnes) will be recovered from the property owner.
The new measures are based on the Solid Waste Management Act, 2016, Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies (TNULB) Act, 1998, and TNULB Rules, 2023 (sections 384, 385, and 392).
As per the current rules, the city corporation collects a vacant land tax for vacant plots.