Naspur municipal officials draw flak over inconsistent building permits

Officials of Naspur municipality are drawing flak for following dual standards in implementation of norms with regard to issuing permissions to construction of new houses under its jurisdiction.

Mancherial: Officials of Naspur municipality are drawing flak for following dual standards in implementation of norms with regard to issuing permissions to construction of new houses under its jurisdiction.

A layout was developed in 1.39 acres of land situated in survey numbers 16 (16/1/2), 38/7/1/2, 39/5/1 and 39/2 at Theegalpahad village within the limits of Naspur municipality. It got tentative approval in 2023, but was not accorded the final approval. As per Telangana municipal Act 2019 and TSbPass-2020, no construction can be taken up in a layout which was tentatively approved.

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According to inspection reports prepared by the District Town and Country Planning Officer (DTCPO) Sampath and District Panchayat Officer (DPO) Venkateshwar Rao, four row houses were observed to be in construction stage in a layout in plots numbered 11, 12, 13 and 14 without obtaining prior permission from competent authority even before final approval was not accorded. The report was submitted to Collector Kumar Deepak on August 5.

Surprisingly, permission was accorded by the officials of Naspur municipality to the same four under-construction rowhouses on September 29. Barely 10 days ago, the officials of Naspur municipal demolished a five-storied building belonging to Deekonda Annaiah, a leader of Telangana Boggu Ghani Karmeeka Sangham (TGBKS) for violating norms of the Telangana Municipal Act on September 19.

It was unclear as to why officials were forced to give the permission to the under-construction houses in this particular layout. It was learnt that one of the developers belongs to the Congress. Apparently, the officials had no option but to provide permissions to the houses after the leader exerted pressure on them. They are being criticized for providing the exemption to political leaders of the ruling party and showing discrimination against common public.

As per norms of the Telangana Municipal Act and TSbPASS, the municipality/corporation should not approve and release any building permission or allow any developments in the area under mortgage to a municipality/corporation in particular and in other plots of the layout in general until and unless the layout owner completes developmental works and gets released the mortgaged land from the municipality/corporation and release of final layout.

According to rules of the Act and and TSbPASS, the applicant of the layout project shall adhere to rules and regulations of concerned departments or authority as applicable. In case the developers violate any condition as imposed in the proceedings of the authorities, the layout permission becomes invalid.

Naspur Municipal Commissioner Satish was not available for comment.

Questions were also being raised as to why the Collector, chairman of the district layout committee, gave final approval recently even after the DTCPO and DPO pointed violations of norms of muncipal Act and TSbPASS in their inspection report.