COIMBATORE: A shortage of Assistant Town Planning Officers (ATPOs) in the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has begun affecting several key town planning activities, including building plan approvals and the removal of encroachments from Open Space Reservation (OSR) lands and other public places across the city.
The corporation has five zones covering 100 wards, with the town planning wing handling a wide range of responsibilities linked to building permissions, land use and enforcement. However, only three ATPOs are currently available to manage these works across all five zones, putting additional pressure on the existing officials.
The shortage has become a concern as building plan applications require scrutiny and field-level verification before approvals can be issued. The limited manpower is also affecting enforcement activities, particularly the identification and removal of encroachments from OSR lands earmarked for public use and other public spaces.
Corporation sources said the number of sanctioned ATPO posts was earlier increased from five to 10, with two officers envisaged for each of the five zones. However, the intended staffing strength has not been achieved over the years, leaving the corporation with just three ATPOs to handle the workload across the city now.
With each officer having to oversee work spread across multiple wards and locations, officials are finding it difficult to conduct regular inspections while also processing applications and attending to complaints.
The manpower crunch is also significant from an enforcement perspective, as OSR lands are intended for public amenities and open spaces. Regular monitoring is required to identify unauthorised occupation and initiate action against encroachments.
Officials said strengthening the town planning wing would help speed up approvals and improve monitoring and enforcement across the corporation limits.
With the city continuing to expand and development activity increasing, the shortage of ATPOs has highlighted the need to fill the vacant posts and ensure that the town planning wing has adequate manpower to handle its responsibilities across all 100 wards.
When inquired about it, a senior CCMC official told TNIE that the civic body has intimated the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department (MAWS) about staff crunch not just in the town planning wing but across all the sections of the CCMC and demanded to fill them at the earliest. "The government has assured us to fill up the vacant posts soon and reduce the burden and workload of the existing officials," added the sources.
