Cap on fee charged by architects: IIA, Punjab Chapter counters statement of Local Govt Minister Punjab

Ludhiana, July 24, 2019: The Local Bodies Department has decided to put a cap on the fee charged by architects for designing buildings in the state.
A statement which is attributed to the Local Bodies Minister reads “This move is aimed at providing monetary relief to people as they have been complaining that they have to pay a huge amount to architect for uploading the drawings of building plans online”.

E-Naksha plan was launched in January 15, 2019 in 165 ULBs and 27 improvement Trusts. It was single window service to get building plan approvals faster and reduce corruption.

A body of Punjab Architects, Indian Institute of Architects, Punjab Chapter has countered the argument given by Local Bodies Department. Office bearers of IIA, Punjab Chapter said “Architects’ fees is governed by guidelines of Council of Architecture which is established under Architects Act 1972. State Government has no jurisdiction to put a cap on Architects’ fees. It is against the law. We shall take it to higher level till we get justice”.

In reply to a Minister’s statement that Architects were demanding huge fees for approval of online plans, IIA said that corruption in department has increased after the introduction of online approvals rather than getting reduced as was claimed earlier by department. No qualified architect indulges in malpractices which are attributed to us. It is the result of department allowing unqualified designers which are not supposed to design buildings.

Another Architect commented, “There are many faults till date in online approval system scrutiny online is supposed to be time bound which is not. They should focus on their drawbacks rather targeting architects”.

Architects wanted to know if government is planning a cap on other professionals working in state like Doctors, CAs, Advocates, etc. Architects also argued that department should focus on clearing pending 5800 files.