Over the last few months I took the words of GHMC Commissioner, Mr Sarma quite seriously. During his crusade against illegal structures, Mr Sarma exhorted all citizens to point out illegal structures which came up post 1st Jan 2008.
I took that at face value and complained to the Deputy Commissioner, Alwal about an illegal construction in my neighbourhood. The building in question houses a school, Triveni Talent School which in any case was illegally located in a residential building, a gross violation of laws in the wake of the Supreme Court’s observations post the Kumbakonam disaster. The builders who were putting up the illegal structure were stealthily doing so in the night, so that no one noticed. I complained every day of the week for the next week, and then one day someone from the Municipal office seem to have served a cease work order. Work stopped for a few days only to start again.
Try calling Mr Amaraiah, the Deputy Commissioner, GHMC Alwal and that is when you realize that some people never hear their phone ring. Either they are deaf or they deliberately don’t take the call.
In the meantime, having realized the futility of complaining to Alwal GHMC, I sent an email to GHMC Commissioner Mr Sarma. I explained the sequence of events and urged him to take action – no avail. Not even an acknowledgement of having received my email. I sent a number of SMS to his mobile all of which were dutifully delivered, but again no action. I tried speaking to Mr Dhanjuaya Reddy, Additional Commissioner (Planning and Projects) but he cut me off saying that he was busy and he would call back. Of course, he never called back.
I also registered the illegal construction details in the on-line grievance facility on the GHMC website. I got a tracking number and nothing seems to have moved hence. Mr Reddy does seem to have the time to forward the compliant to anyone.
Finally, I sent another round of mails and SMSes to all and sundry in GHMC and no on bothered. I finally called up the Assistant Commissioner, Town Planning, Alwal Mr K Madhusudhan. He did pick up the call, listened to my complaint and then offered me what I consider a classic answer. “Sir, we know an illegal floor was added by Triveni School, Alwal in April 2008 and I have sent a report to our head office” So what’s the next step “Why are you bothered about it. The builder has paid Rs 4 lakhs as a part of the regularization scheme and how can we take action if he has helped us achieve our budgets.” Now that is official bribing, if you ask me. I quizzed him further and asked him about the directive from GHMC Commissioner about demolition of buildings which were constructed after January 1st, 2008. “The Commissioner will say all that, but we cannot do anything. Anyway why are you bothered about all these?”
All these travails for a citizen who wanted to ensure that everyone followed the law of the land. Finally, having run out of all options I am planning to write to the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court, seeking his intervention in taking action against the corrupt officials of GHMC. I will keep you posted on further developments. In the meantime, if you have seen any similar illegal activity in your neighbourhood, post in a comment or write to kochattil@gmail.com
2 comments:
Dear Suresh
I agree with you... It is a high time our politicians industrialising the corruption and creating social imbalance. Infact we too have simillar problem and I have requested for a help.
We have purchased land of 512 yards out of 1024 yards and balance 512 yards are with our builder. We have obtained grampanchayat permission to construct apartment complex. Grampanchyat have given permission for 4 floors.
We have requested builder who owns half of the land to construct 20 flats. 10 Flats will be shared to us and balance 10flats will be to builder. He has built stilt+4 floors constituting 20 flats.
On knowing about BPS scheme he quickly built 3 flats over 4th floor and claiming as pent house,classified as unauthorized construction in his BPS application. He just laid slabs.
As per architect design apartment is designed for 4 floors but now he has raised an additional
3 flats covering nearly around 5000SFT which is ¾ th of the floor space. As such he is not the law full owner of the entire land and we are afraid that regularization of additional flats constructed on pent house would create chaos to the apartment. We are sure that this will create parking problems and put an additional strain on the common amenities which otherwise designed to cater 20 flats.
We have protested builder on this and we have mentioned to him that he is not the single owner of the land and can not take unilateral decision. We have already shared our protest letter to Vice Chairman, HUDA requesting them not to regularize the same. However I am scared that builder will be managing HUDA. I need your help and how do we stop regularizing this?
Ram
Dear Mr Suresh,
I have been reading Apna Hyderabad for sometime and I love it. Good that both you and Mr Ram have brought up the official corruption of our state government. Your's is not a lone case. Many people are suffering due to BPS but the state government is only interested in money for its treasury.
As you seem to be working for a newspaper, why don't you take up the issue with your journalist friends. I hope you believe in the impact of news.
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