CHENNAI : The Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNSCZMA) has received 190 applications for regularisation of constructions built in nine villages under the Coastal Regulation Zone, of which 155 are in the Coastal Regulation Zone-III where new residential constructions are prohibited.
The applications for all 190 constructions have been forwarded to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, which has to consider giving amnesty to the violators.
This comes after the Greater Chennai Corporation has issued notices to owners of 798 buildings built between Neelankarai and Uthandi after the High Court on September 15 last year pulled up officials for turning a blind eye to bungalows, resorts, guest houses, palatial buildings and farm houses constructed on the East Coast Road in violation of the CRZ regulations and without obtaining building plan approvals from the authorities concerned.
The eight villages include Neelankarai, Uthandi, Injambakkam, Panayur, Sholinganallur, Akkarai, Vettuvankani, Devaneri and Muttukadu. It is learnt that the SCZMA has classified the applications in two categories; one seeking approval prior to June 30, 2018 and the other after June 30, 2018. This comes after the Union Ministry of Environment amended the CRZ notification 2011 on March 6, 2018 and inserted post-facto clearance in the CRZ Notification, 2011, thus giving a chance for violators of the CRZ rules to regularise the construction subject to approval from the ministry.
However, as per the amendment, all activities, which are otherwise permissible under the provisions of notifications but have commenced construction without prior clearance, would be considered for regularisation only in such cases where the project applies for regularisation in the specified time and the projects which are in violation of the CRZ norms would not be regularised.Interestingly, the amendment also states that constructions, which have commenced before the date of the notification without requisite CRZ clearance, shall be considered only by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, provided regularisation request was received by the ministry by June 30, 2018.
It is learnt that 34 applications are from the constructions which come under the Coastal Regulation Zone-II norms and 96 under the CRZ-III norms under the CRZ notification of 2011, which have been submitted prior to June 30, 2018. Similarly, from June 30, 2018 to July 31, 2018, the TNSCZMA received 60 applications, one under CRZ-II and 59 under CRZ-III. TNSCZMA sources told Express that those sites under the CRZ-III may not be allowed and permission could be accorded for only reconstruction as per the new CRZ notification.