Bhubaneswar, Aug. 27: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s failure to punish real estate developers violating the no-objection certificate norms has once again come to light with councillors raising questions about various projects across the city.
Though the civic body could collect nearly Rs 20 crore a year from real estate developers, it managed to mop up less than Rs 10 crore because there were no serious efforts, said a councillor at the meeting.
The councillors urged the civic body officials to strictly implement the no-objection rule.
For a new housing project, a builder must get an no-objection certificate (NOC) from the corporation by paying 2 per cent of the project cost. The fund is supposed to be a builder's contribution towards road, drainage and sewer systems to be provided in the project.
The Bhubaneswar Development Authority is supposed to approve a building plan after the civic body issues an NOC.
However, the councillors alleged that the builders had constructed more than 100 such buildings without applying for the NOC and getting plans approved by the development authority.
Councillor Pramila Parida said more than 10 apartment complexes were coming up inher ward, but only three had deposited their dues. She wanted to know what steps were taken against the violators.
Councillors of ward No. 2 and 49 Sanjay Sethi and Amaresh Jena, respectively, echoed Parida.
Municipal commissioner Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra admitted that there were several cases where the civic body had not received an application for NOC, but the development authority approved the building plans.
The clause, which enables the developer to get the NOC done if the corporation takes more than a month to issue the certificate, is being exploited.
“We have initiated a survey to know how many multi-storey structures have violated the NOC issue,” he said.
Admitting that the overlapping issues between the corporation and the development authority were creating confusion, Mishra said: “A process has been started to rationalise the rules through which the builders will also feel comfortable and wilfully contribute the same for the peripheral development.”
However, the councillors felt that the civic body should be strict in collecting fees, so that the revenue could be spent on development front. “The corporation should be strict about its decision to snap power and water supply to those complexes, which have flouted the NOC norms,” said a councillor.
Among other council decisions, it passed a resolution not to add 21 gram panchayats and two revenue villages to its fold as many rural areas have started protesting against the decision.
The council also decided to place junior engineers near the wards to facilitate supervisory work. At present, 12 junior engineers are supervising five wards each under their jurisdiction. The city has 60 wards.
“We need more engineers and junior engineers to supervise the work. We need more than 30 junior engineers and four executive engineers,” said another civic body official.
In another development, even after finishing the meeting, the council delayed its proceeding further as it wanted to avoid a group of casual sanitation workers, who were staging dharna in front of the council hall and commissioner’s office.
“We understood their demands and their papers are almost ready, so that in place of Rs 2,700 per month they would get Rs 9,300. But, the approval will be delayed because of some unavoidable circumstances. Actually, it was already planned to be declared before the self-government day,” said Mishra.
