A residential apartment in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Dec. 27: Six of the 72 commercial and residential apartments here have obtained occupancy certificates from the development authority and the rest have been refused it for deviating from the approved building plans.

“There had been violation of norms by 66 apartments in the city. We are not going to regularise them,” said town and regional planning member Raj Kishore Sahu.

These 66 apartments have failed to get no-objection certificates from the Berhampur Municipal Corporation, central ground water authority, Berhampur fire officer, environment and forest department and the Odisha State Pollution Control Board. “The buildings are fit to stay only when the development authority issues the occupancy certificate to the builders,” Sahu said.

All builders of commercial and residential apartments have to get NOC from the corporation for drainage, sewerage and solid waste management system.

“The builders have to adhere to the directions of the development authority for certain projects. The plan of the building must be drawn by architects and structural analysis by the analysts empanelled by the authority,” he said.

Chairman of the development authority Kailash Rana expressed concern over the manner in which commercial and residential apartments had flouted the norms. “We would take strong action against the builders, who have deviated from the approved building plan during construction,” he said.

However, there has been no enforcement officer and squad in the development authority for the past four years. That is why the authority cannot take action against the builders at the time of construction, Sahu said. “I assumed charge eight months ago and there has been no enforcement squad for the past four years,” he said.