Posers on PMC’s building permission in 24 hours

30/1/2018

PUNE: Civic activists and architects cautioned the Pune Municipal Corporation against its new scheme of granting building permission within 24 hours, stressing it should use methods like online submissions for speeding up the process.

They claimed that the civic body should avoid sharing its executive power of building permission with private individuals. Putting the onus on private stakeholders would lead to legal complications and the common buyer would suffer, they stressed.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) launched a new scheme from January 1 for granting building permission. According to it, the building permission department would issue receipts after getting the self-declaration. The receipt could be considered as a provisional building permission to start the ground work of new constructions.

According to the scheme, a fortnight to a month would be given for furnishing all the documents. The final permission would be given after checking the validity. The associations of architects and structural engineers, including Indian Institute of Architects (Maharashtra chapter), Architects Engineers and Surveyors Association, Pune, and Pune Architectural Consultants Association, raised questions about the scheme. A statement issued by the organizations stated that landowners and developers should also be taken to task in case of any flaw in completing the formalities.

Based on these suggestions, another scheme was launched in which PMC stated that the permission would be granted within 24 hours, provided all the stakeholders submitted an affidavit, saying everything was above board. "Developers will use the commencement certificate to woo the buyers. A provision should be made to make sure that the civic body keeps a constant check on the work," said Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe of Sajag Nagrik Manch.

Civic officials claimed that the move was aimed at providing ease of doing business to citizens. "The new scheme is based on suggestions and issues raised by all stakeholders," said Amar Shinde, a building permission department official. He said the civic administration would do a fact check on the ground within a month after giving the permission. If any problem is found, action against will be taken.