Ludhiana, May 31
The building branch of the Municipal Corporation here has reportedly become a cesspool of corruption, with officials and employees, rather than making sure that building bylaws were scrupulously followed, have virtually become tools in the hands of builders, who flouted all norms and bylaws in a blatant manner.
As a result almost the building activities in the industrial hub of the state continue unregulated. Due to this the civic body looses a big chunk of revenue, in the form of building application fee for approval of building plans and composition fee for regularisation of compoundable violations, both in the residential and commercial buildings.
Unable to discipline the supervisory officers and their subordinates in the building branch, the then MC Commissioner, Mr R.L.Kalsia, had contemplated certain harsh measures which included fixing responsibility for lapses and taking penal action against the erring employees. Accordingly, suspension of at least three Assistant Town Planners (ATPs) and one building inspector had been recommended to the Local Government Department for their alleged connivance in construction of commercial complexes and other category VI buildings in violation of the building bylaws.
Sources said that the MC administration had issued charge sheets to three senior officials, including the State Town Planner and two Municipal Town Planners (MTPs) for lapses in specific cases during their tenure in the city.
While the serving MTP, Mr P.K. Garg, two ATPs and one building inspector had been issued show-cause notice for dereliction of duty and failure to intervene and check the construction of buildings, which were not in accordance with the building bylaws in force.
In this context a sizeable number of challans for violation of building bylaws still remained undelivered to the defaulters for years together simply due to the complicity of the building branch employees.
The common modus operandi, the sources revealed, was a routine visit by the building inspector concerned and even a class IV employee to the building, where violation of bylaws had been pointed out and a deal was struck in case of residential and insignificant buildings.
In the cases of major commercial complexes or other category buildings, the owner was called to the MC office and at times threats of demolition were given to raise the pay off. Once the deal was settled, the relevant file was dumped deep in the record room and in case of grave irregularities, even the whole file was made to disappear.
When contacted, the new MC Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sharma, admitted that several cases of mass irregularities in building branch had been brought to his notice and he would deal with them in due course. He, however, added that some MC branches in particular, including the building branch, needed a thorough cleaning up and the process would commence soon as he got down to work.
