Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 4: At a high level meeting organized in Bangalore on Wednesday December 2, it was decided to keep in abeyance the order that had made it impossible to regularize the construction of houses that were constructed in the lay outs in the city that were not approved by Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA), and to grant the site owners permission to build houses by collecting 15% penalty from them. The government’s recent order had withdrawn the pre-existing facility to regularize the sites by paying the said penalty. It may be recalled that the Comprehensive Development Plan adopted for the city as per the state government’s direction, had placed restrictions on the construction of the houses on smaller sites.  The City Corporation had taken a decision to issue licences and permission for the construction of houses only in the sites located in MUDS-authorized lay outs in the city alone, resulting in lot of problems for the common people.

Urban development minister, Suresh Kumar, was apprised of these difficulties during his visit to the city last week. It may be recalled, that the opposition Congress Party had walked out of the city council meet held on November 30, on this issue. The high level meeting was conducted to sort out this issue, with the participation of minister Suresh Kumar, district in-charge minister, Krishna J Palemar, MLA, N Yogish Bhat, mayor, Shankar Bhat, Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, V Ponnuraj, and City Corporation commissioner, Vijayaprakash.

As per the decision now taken, as mooted by the minister, for every site in the unapproved lay outs, permission of Mangalore Urban Development Authority has to be obtained by paying a penalty at the rate of 15% of the stamp duty. Once this permission is granted, the City Corporation will grant building licences.

The government has set into motion, the Akrama-Sakrama scheme of regularizing illegal constructions in the state. Discussions were held about withdrawing the above concession, once the new scheme comes into force. Discussions about lowering the rates of self-assessment property tax were also held at the meeting. The minister instructed the officials to send supportive comments and notes coupled with material arguments in support of the need to cut down the property tax rates, as the ministry has only received the resolution passed at the council meeting on this issue, without any enclosures.