Telangana Govt. to Hold Additional Collectors Liable for Illegal Buildings
Recently, the Telangana government has discovered a lot of illegal constructions being constructed without the necessary permits and/or built on encroached land. The government had ordered the respective district collectors & municipalities to take swift action against these illegal structures. Most of these illegal structures were built in areas under municipalities & gram panchayats, few were also detected to be made in areas that fall under Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) limits. The state government has decided to hold Additional Collectors of local bodies for any illegal constructions in the municipalities.
The government discovered that these illegal developments had counterfeit permits signed off by gram panchayat officials & local collectors, these permits were backdated to before the merger of the gram panchayat with local municipalities. There were no traces of these permits found in the municipality registers and no transactions connected to payment of registration fees for these properties were found.
The District Collector advised strict action against the officials i.e., the municipal commissioners and gram panchayat secretaries in office when the permits were handed out. The officials who will be discovered to have been a part of the fiasco will face charges for failing to prevent construction of illegal structures, some even on demarcated FTL tank limits & buffer zone. The additional collectors in office will be held responsible for illegal constructions in the respective municipalities, the municipal commissioners & gram panchayat secretaries who worked earlier will also be facing strict action for their involvement and failure to prevent illegal projects being made.
The government of Telangana had created the post of Additional Collector (local bodies) nearly 2-3 years ago to oversee the functioning of both urban & rural local bodies of their respective districts. There were about 2-3 municipalities in each district on average and yet these appointed Additional Collectors were not supervising the functioning of these local bodies – the state government states. The municipal administration has received reports of illegal constructions in of the 74 new municipalities – especially the municipalities that were merged with gram panchayats in numerous villages. The final report will be submitted by the respective District Collectors of each district to the Municipal Commissioner on the number of illegal constructions and the actions taken/to be taken against them.
The state Municipal Minister K.T.R. Rao will soon hold a convening of Additional Collectors, Municipal Commissioner and other officials to discuss the matter of these illegal constructions and actions recommended to be taken against them. The matter of illegal buildings kicked off over the past 2 weeks after the government discovered more than 200 villas illegally constructed on lake buffer zone land in Mallampet village, Dundigal municipality in Medchal-Malkajgiri district.
