E Arun and Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Feb 10: In a welcome move the Port Blair Municipal Council has started demolishing private buildings, which were constructed in violation of the Building Bye-laws of PBMC but the million dollar question is whether the same PBMC will take similar action against Government Buildings, which have also been constructed in open violation of the same Bye-Laws.
In Andamans there are many such government buildings in Port Blair city, which have been constructed in past in violation of law of this land but till today not a single such building has been demolished by the PBMC. Does the PBMC have two sets of building bye-laws?
According to The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Extraordinary Gazette Dated Oct 13, 1999 clause 12.1, “The maximum height of a building shall be 10 meters (measured up to the bottom of the beam or the wall plate) unless otherwise specially permitted by the authority.”
But today we can a number of Govt. buildings whose height is above 10 Mt and these buildings are standing tall, making mockery of law of this land.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the officials of PBMC in this regard Mr. A Maheshwar, EE (Works), PBMC accepted that some Govt. office buildings are not following the bye-laws.
But soon to justify the inaction the EE added that according to the bye-laws it is not necessary for the Govt. departments to submit plans to PBMC for approval supporting which the clause 3.7(A) (b) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Extraordinary Gazette Dated Oct 13, 1999 states that — the Central/ State Govt. or A & N Administration shall designate an authority within its own department to issue a certificate specifying that the bye-laws have been followed in all aspects. The plan then need not be submitted to the local authority for approval.
When contacted, Mr. Gautam Dutta, Building Officer, PBMC told Andaman Sheekha that Govt . Departments need not submit PBMC the plan for approval but they have to intimate the council about the plan.
“But as no stipulated time is mentioned for this submission, there is negligence from many departments for intimating PBMC about the plans,” the Building Officer added.
He further added that many of the times no documents are submitted by the Govt. departments regarding construction. When asked about any plan to demolish Government buildings which are standing dangerously in the heart of the city he said “Before I joined many demolition orders were already issued but those were never executed.”
When Andaman Sheekha asked about the specific authority who can undertake demolition, Andaman Sheekha was asked to refer clause 32.14 of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Extraordinary Gazette Dated Oct 13, 1999 of which a part is stated below “……to comply with the order within such period the Secretary/ an officer authorized by the council may with the approval of the chairperson of the council cause the said construction of the work to which the order relates to be demolished/ altered and the expenses of such demolition/alteration shall be recoverable from such person as an arrears of tax under the Regulation.”
The above extract clearly mentions that the demolition can be approved by the Secretary with the consent of the Chairperson of the council but the staffs of the council are clearly complaining that the execution of demolition are not performed.
Demolishing some buildings in city, should only be a beginning and now the General Public hope that the PBMC will continue this good work and demolish all other such buildings, including the government buildings, which have been constructed in violation of the Building Bye-laws of PBMC. Let the law be same for the general public and government.
PBMC should consider the cases where first or second slabling have already done and give building plan approval with the existing slab because we can not demolish the building which cost financial loss and mental disturbances also.