ONGOLE: As the state government has extended the last date of Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) to August 31, municipal authorities have decided to pressurise owners of illegal constructions in Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC) limits, to regularise their properties.
According to reports, such a move has the potential to generate substantial revenue for the OMC. As such, the officials concerned, authorities have already served 740 notices for the same and have decided to grant permission for regularising all unauthorized buildings constructed between 1985 to July 2018. However political hindrance is impacting the viability of the plan. Many such properties in the city belong to prominent politicians, OMC officials are failing to exercise their power.
Speaking on the ongoing drive against illegal/ unauthorized buildings/ constructions, an OMC officer, on condition of anonymity, said,” We are witnessing a peculiar situation. Often one group complains about a particular illegal construction and later on, another group vehemently denies it. A few people have also knocked on the doors of political leaders in order to seek protection from us. Thus, we are often helpless to take any action against such illegal activities.”
According to official statistics, since the implementation of BPS in 2015, several unauthorised buildings and constructions have cropped up across the city. From January 2019, the town planning department authorities have identified and issued notices to 740 owners of such properties.
“We have issued notices to around 1,000 illegal constructions across the city and have received no response from them,” said an OMC official. “Apart from Ongole Municipal Corporation, all seven municipalities also have a large number of unprocessed BPS applications. It seems the majority of the people do not bother to regularise their unauthorized constructions,” he added. As there is no significant reaction from such owners, OMC town planning wing is planning to conduct an extensive campaign about the date extension for BPS in the city.