Time to pull up officials who allow building bylaw violations

Time to pull up officials who allow building bylaw violations

The Hindu

People say it is not enough to pull down illegal structures

# The Government's announcement that it will clear illegal structures has been met with scepticism
# Officials say it is not possible to keep an eye on every building

BANGALORE: The issue of demolitions of buildings in Bangalore in which construction norms have been violated has become the talk of the town, and not a day passes without property owners complaining that action should also be taken against officials, particularly engineers, who approve illegal constructions.

Both legal experts and officials point out that there cannot be violations of building bylaws, use of land for a purpose not permitted by the law, and encroachments without the connivance of officials. They say it is ironic that an official who cleared an illegal construction is made a member of the team that takes up demolition of the building for violation of norms.

The recent rain and flooding in Bangalore brought to the fore violations of building norms by property owners and builders. The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) found there was flooding in several localities because unauthorised and illegal constructions were allowed to come up.

Although the Government has said it will clear illegal structures, the declaration has been met with scepticism. People say it is not enough to pull down illegal structures; officials who allowed these should be punished. The Supreme Court had dealt with this issue in its judgment in the G.N. Khajuria versus Delhi Development Authority (DDA) case. It said officials who "blinked" at violations and regularised them (without any authority of the law) should be punished.

In this case, the Supreme Court was dealing with a case in land was used for the construction of a school though this was not permitted under the law. The court, which directed the DDA to inspect the matter and report to it, made a series of observations against officials who permit irregularities and are not punished.

It said: "There is a general feeling that where unauthorised constructions are demolished on the force of court orders, the illegality is not taken care of fully in as much as the officers of the statutory body who had allowed the unauthorised construction. At the root of the unlawful act of the citizen, it is the officer who is more to be blamed than the recipient of the illegal benefit. It is thus imperative, that while undoing the mischief which would require the demolition of the unauthorised construction, the delinquent officer has also to be punished in accordance with law".

Criticising such officials, the court observed that they are seldom punished.

The Karnataka High Court has taken note of violations of norms in several buildings and ordered their demolition. It has taken to task the officials responsible. BMP officials say they demolish illegal buildings when these come to their notice. According to them, it is difficult to keep an eye on every building. Besides, building bylaws permit compounding of five per cent deviations, they say.