Regularization of unauthorized constructions becomes a farce

As the last date for regularization of unauthorized constructions ends on November 16, only six constructions have been recommended for regularization by district committee at the panchayat level in the district. The number is nominal considering there are 1,299 grama panchayat wards, 155 block panchayat wards, 147 municipality wards and 100 corporation wards in the district. As for municipalities and corporation, even the district-level committee could not be convened till date. The poor response has made a mockery of all relaxations made by LDF government in regularizing unauthorized constructions. The government had amended regularization rules by steeply reducing the penalties by overruling the report submitted by a four-member expert committee on regularization of unauthorised constructions. Going by the latest data collected from office of the regional town planner; the district committee for panchayats was convened once and six applications were recommended for regularization. A cumulative amount of Rs 20.75 lakh has been recommended as compounding fee for regularization of six constructions. The highest compounding fee recommended for an unauthorized construction was Rs 14.46 lakh and the least amount was Rs 2,000. The total number of applications, which came up before the district committee for civic bodies, stood at 48 as on Tuesday. From city corporation 36 applications have been received and from four municipalities only 11 applications have been received. Neyyatinkara recorded zero number of applications. Around 7 applications are likely to be presented before district-level committee for urban local bodies. From Varkala, where massive action against unauthorized constructions was initiated, only two applications were received for regularization. The government had issued the gazette notification for regularization on February 20 and the time limit for filing applications was fixed as 90 days. The time limit expired on May 20, however the government was forced to extend the time owing to poor response and new deadline was set as November 16. Officials say that in many cases erroneous filing of applications led to rejection and in others the applications could not be entertained as it came within the ambit of around 11 norms, the violation of which will make regularization impossible. In Thiruvananthapuram, less than 30 applications were received in first four months since the notification was issued, but all of them had to be returned either due to submission in wrong format or it involved violation of Wetland Act and Coastal Regulation Zone Act.