ARCHITECTS meet Administrator Chandigarh

COMPLAIN OF DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING PLANS APPROVED BY ESTATE OFFICE

Chandigarh/Ludhiana, July 15, 2013: A delegation of Indian Institute of Architects, Chandigarh-Punjab Chapter met the Administrator of Chandigarh today in Public meeting.

Architects brought to the notice of Administration difficulties in getting plans approved by Estate Office. There are cumbersome procedures, red-tapism which are breeding corruption and causing harassment to general public, the delegation said.

The delegates have complained that members of electrical, fire and public health departments rarely attend meetings for plan approvals. After completing all formalities, when the file goes to Estate Officer for signatures, it takes nearly two months.

Scrutiny of plans takes a long time due to shortage of staff. Form-B is misused by Estate Office to cover up the delays.

Even standard design/drawings prepared by Administration need approvals. Ownership verifications is done twice, which is not needed. In group housing societies, if two houses out of 50 did violations, remaining 48 suffer as they do not get completion certificates.

The lengthy procedures of file movement in estate office invite corruption. Architects requested to the Administrator to overhaul the system and make it single window, submission of documents online, bring transparency and make it time bound.

Administrator advised the architects that they should make full use of clause d of stage 4 of sanctioning stage notification. It is “Deemed sanction of plans” which reads,” In total, from the date of receipt of the application at the single window to the date, a final decision is taken, not more than 60 days shall be involved. In case within 60 days, no observations are sent or plans are not approved or rejected, then there shall be deemed approval of the plan and the application shall be free to execute the proposed building plan. In case of deemed clearance, if any violations are noticed at any stage and in case the plan itself which was submitted was not in accordance with the rules and guidelines then the Architect, who prepared the plan, the applicant and also the officials of the Estate Office who are responsible for the delay causing non-clearance of the building plan shall be jointly responsible. In case malafide intention is proved then the Architect shall not be recognised by the Estate Officer {PAC (U) and PAC (L)}.

Administrator stressed that architects should complete their paper work fully and should use this clause to start the work.

The delegation was comprised of Ludhiana-based Architect Sanjay Goel, Joint Honorary  Secretary, Indian Institute of Architects Chandigarh Punjab Chapter, Architect Surinder Bagha - immediate past Chairman of Chapter, Architect Manmohan Khanna - Chapter Chairman and Architect (Col.) Satish Kumar.