Mancherial: Municipal officials draw flak for delay in action against misuse of cellars

The officials had slapped show-cause notices in June against 26 owners of commercial establishments including hospitals and shopping malls who had rented out cellars to shops, diagnostic centres and warehouses instead of allowing customers to park their vehicles.

Mancherial: Officials of Mancherial municipality are drawing flak for delaying action against owners of commercial complexes who were misusing cellars.

The officials had slapped show-cause notices in June against 26 owners of commercial establishments including hospitals and shopping malls who had rented out cellars to shops, diagnostic centres and warehouses instead of allowing customers to park their vehicles.

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The owners of the commercial complexes were given 10 days to give their explanation as to why action should not be initiated against them for flouting norms of the Telangana Municipal Act, 2019. They did not provide their explanation so far. However, no action was taken against the owners yet, raising many eyebrows.

The issue of misuse of cellars of the commercial complexes came to the fore when three laborers were killed when they were trapped under the soil of a neighboring building that caved in on them in Bellampalli Chowrasta on June 13. The daily-earners were engaged in construction of a cellar of a private hospital of a gynaecologist.

Similarly, customers are forced to park vehicles in the middle of the roads in the busy market with owners of the commercial establishments using cellars for purposes other than parking. They were attracting fines imposed by the traffic police. They said they were facing inconvenience in parking two-wheelers and cars. Stationing the vehicles on the centre of the road was often leading to traffic snarls in the market that sees floating of anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people every day.

Meanwhile, a henchman of an MLA allegedly exerted pressure on the officials of the municipality to prevent action against the owners. “The henchman collected somewhere between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.15 lakh from the owners to avoid the demolition of the cellars,” a source said, seeking anonymity.

When asked, municipal commissioner A Maruthi Prasad told ‘Telangana Today’ that the officials were busy in the process of transfers taken by the government and supervising ongoing developmental works in the town. A special drive would be organized to take action against the owners who misuse cellars instead of parking of vehicles belonging to customers in a week or two, he said.