Officials presenting wrong reports regarding violations of housing maps regulations will have to face the music, stated Mayor Asha lakra. The statement was made against ward councillors’ accusations during the RMC board meeting this Monday, blaming the maps division of Ranchi Municipal Corporation of being home to rampant discrepancies.
“Construction begins even before house maps are approved by RMC. Buildings often have floors more than the approved number. Monitoring to ensure compliance with the regulations is seldom done. Encroachment in form of unauthorised parking space is commonplace in the city. All due to unprofessional working methods of RMC maps division,” exclaimed Ward-30 Councillor Om Prakash.
In reply to these accusations, Municipal Commissioner Prashant Kumar stated, “Corporation is riddled with manpower crunch, which delays the map approval and monitoring process. Owners of structures in violation of building bylaws have been notified and their housing plans will be nullified if they do not turn up.”
“The housing maps should be sent to ward councillors so that we can identify the shortcomings in them. Plans which come to RMC for approval in future should also be forwarded to us, and if we find them deviating from the existing building bylaws, we can prevent the construction work from beginning,” suggested Ward Councillor Najima Raza.
Additionally, the housing plans now have to demarcate 35 percent for parking space against the previously determined 20 percent.
The board meeting also saw heated discussions over absence of alternative measures for water rationing or planning for the impending water scarcity during summer in the coming year. The ward councillors accused the water board of botched working methods and apathy towards arrangements to the ensure water supply to all.
We are making preparing a list of dysfunctional handpumps and water hydrants and they will be repaired shortly, stated Executive Engineer Arvind Sharma.
“The handpumps will be installed on basis of annual rate contract only. We have list of 334 handpumps which have dried out. These will be revived soon,” said the Municipal Commissioner.