CUTTACK: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has sought permission of the Orissa High Court (HC) to allow kalyan mandaps in the city to operate on conditional licence. The HC has been hearing a PIL on traffic chaos by increasing congestion on roads in different parts of the city during social functions in these banquet halls as most of them did not have parking areas, since 2015.
On March 16 this year, CMC was asked to submit a report on compliance of HC prescribed guidelines by the mandaps. On Tuesday, CMC Secretary-cum-Deputy Commissioner Latashree Bag filed an affidavit to allow CMC to grant conditional license to all the mandaps till Cuttack Development Authority publishes the New Planning & Building Standards Regulations for the core area covering the municipal area.
Bag said this would enable the social functions in the city to be materialised and also augment the revenue of the corporation. The civic body expects CDA to publish the new regulations by the end of October 2021. The affidavit stated that on examination it was found that of the 73 enumerated mandaps, only two can be allowed conditional licence and the rest are not coming under the eligibility criteria set by the HC. “Therefore it was decided that such examination will be made once the CDA comes up with the New Planning & Building Standards Regulations”, Bag said in the affidavit.
According to the guidelines prescribed by the HC, it was mandatory for the kalyan mandaps to earmark 40 per cent of built up area for parking. However, earmarking 20 percent of built-up area for parking was permitted in the case of the mandaps that had functioned for at least five years on the condition that there would be no parking on public roads.
The bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray has fixed May 12 for next hearing on the matter while permitting Amicus Curiae Arun Kumar Budhia to place on record by then the details of the kalyan mandaps which are operating illegally.