THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hundreds of applicants are left in the lurch as the processing of building permit applications face a slowdown owing to the pandemic. Making things worse, the Urban Affairs Department issued fresh orders recently directing the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation to implement the Intelligent Building Plan Management System (IBPMS) for processing building permit applications.
Following this, the civic body has stopped accepting applications manually, adding to the woes of the citizens who have been planning to construct their dream home. It is learnt that more than 700 applications that were submitted in the past three months have been pending because of the slowdown caused by the second wave of the pandemic.
The worst hit are the people who submitted applications for getting permission for house construction. Rajesh G (name changed), a native of Peroorkada, continues his harrowing wait to get the building permit to construct his dream home which is less than 300 sq m. As per the current policy of the government, the local bodies are supposed to give a one-day permit for small constructions. Unfortunately, it’s not happening at various zonal offices under the civic body owing to various reasons.
“I submitted my application nearly three months back for home construction. They are coming up with excuses every time and finding reasons not to clear my application. My plan was to start the construction next month. But now it’s not going to be possible as I can apply for the home loan only after getting the permit,” said Rajesh G. He alleged that the authorities are claiming that the land where the construction is coming up is located in the green strip as per the old master plan.
“As far as I know, the city doesn’t have a master plan as the new master plan is still in its draft stage. I don’t know on what basis they are rejecting applications based on the old master plan which was nullified earlier,” said Rajesh G, who is one among the many applicants who are running from pillar to post for getting the permits. According to him, the delay is going to cost him dear.
“The cost of construction material is climbing everyday and the delay will cost me more,” he added.
The direction from the Urban Affairs Department to accept applications only through the new IBPMS would delay the processing further. The department has asked the local bodies of eight districts to implement IBPMS on a pilot basis from July 15 this year.
A senior official of the IT wing under the civic body said the town planning wing has stopped accepting building permit applications manually. “We have to implement the order. We earlier implemented IBPMS and then the building rule amendment happened in 2019 and we had to put on hold the implementation. Then, the pandemic broke out and now fresh orders have come. It’s a new software and there are going to be initial glitches and eventually verybody will have to adopt the software,” said the official.
A senior official of the town planning wing said that there has been a slowdown because of the pandemic. “Our zonal offices were functioning with 50 per cent staff as per the direction from the state government. The offices started functioning with full strength only a couple of weeks back,” said the official.
The official added that the old master plan is still valid for the 50 wards coming under the corporation. “There is an order giving relaxation for the panchayats which were added to the corporation area. We still follow the old master plan for the 50 corporation divisions,” the official added.
Stakeholders up in arms against IBPMS
All Kerala Building Designers Organisation president Kowdiar Harikumar said the decision to accept building permits for low-risk category buildings also through IBPMS is not right. Recently, the corporation engineer has also issued an order stalling manual acceptance of applications. “They are piloting the software and it’s not right to mandate to accept applications of small constructions too via IBPMS. This would leave the applicants in the lurch. The civic body tried to implement the IBPMS software earlier and failed miserably.
A majority of the stakeholders are yet to get training to use the software. One-day permits are not being granted these days and applicants are forced to wait longer,” said Harikumar. He said the association has moved the High Court against implementing the IBPMS software operated by multiple private companies. “We have filed a petition in the HC demanding reinstatement of Sanketham software developed by the IT Mission. The case is ongoing and a hearing is scheduled this week. Implementing the software all of a sudden without giving us proper training is not the right way,” added Harikumar. The organisation has decided to take it up with the higher authorities in the coming days demanding exemption for at least the low-risk building category. “They are piloting the software and they should keep on accepting applications manually,” he added.
Training sessions impossible amid pandemic
A senior official of the IT wing of the civic body said that it’s not possible to organise training sessions owing to the pandemic. “If the demands come up, we will think about organising training complying with social distancing norms,” the official said.
Glitches affect the digitisation plan
The Urban Affairs Department has asked the local bodies of eight districts to implement IBPMS on a pilot basis from July 15 this year. “It’s a new software and there are going to be initial glitches and eventually verybody will have to adopt the software,” said a senior official of the IT wing under the civic body.
Recently, the city corporation has stopped accepting building permit applications manually as part of the implem-entation of Intelligent Building Plan Management System software. The processing of applications has been hit by pandemic for months now and the new order without holding training sessions for stakeholders will further delay permits. One-day permits for low-risk category also remains a mirage