Mancherial town planning officials draw flak for failing to implement norms

The officials of town planning wing accord permissions for new buildings by reportedly either accepting bribes or succumbing to pressure exerted by local public representatives, mostly councillors.

Mancherial: Officials of town planning wing in Mancherial municipality are drawing flak for failing to implement norms in construction of buildings.

As per norms of the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019, commercial establishments should have a setback of either 3 meters or 5 per cent out of the total area of the plot to the front side. The length of setback is 3 meters or 5 per cent out of the total area of the plot, whichever is more to the left, right and rear sides of the building. Norms for setbacks vary depending on the area of the plot.

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For instance, if the area of a plot is more than 100 square yards, the building or house must have a setback of 3 meters. The setback is 7 meters if the area of a plot is above 500 square yards. Commercial establishments leave 20 per cent of space out of the total area of the plot for parking, while hospitals must earmark 10 per cent of space for parking.

However, these norms are confined to paper. The officials of town planning wing accord permissions for new buildings by reportedly either accepting bribes or succumbing to pressure exerted by local public representatives, mostly councillors. Consequently, flouting norms by the owners of the buildings is going unchecked. Violation of norms is often leading to accidents resulting in death of daily wage earners.

When it comes to safety measures, builders or contractors should take steps to prevent accidents and human loss. A professional site engineer or supervisor must be deployed to supervise the construction at the work site. The site engineer or supervisor ensures construction workers wear helmets, belts, gloves, jackets, etc to avoid mishaps. Planners or engineers must have technical knowledge about the safety of workers.

However, none of these safety measures is being followed at the time of constructing a building, resulting in mishaps and deaths of hapless daily wage labourers. The builders or contractors extend meager compensation to kin of victims to evade cases whenever accidents occur. Since most of the victims are migrants, the incidents become a thing of the past once the focus of the media is shifted to another issue.