Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has received at least Rs 120 crore as around 20,000 property owners have applied for compounding of illegal portion of their buildings but less than 5% of them have been issued the ‘certificates of approval’ while a ‘state-of-confusion’ is looming on disposal of remaining cases due to different reasons.
The state government had on August 10, 2021, made necessary amendments to the Municipal Act to ease the regularization of (illegal) colonies.
Also, the compounding limit was increased from 10 to 30 per cent, when buildings are constructed wi thout permission or against permission. The state government had also offered a provision of 20 per cent special rebate on fee in compounding cases till February 28 this year, but the same was later extended to end June.
According to senior IMC officials, the civic body has, in last around a year, received about 20,000 applications along with at least Rs 120 Crore as compounding fee to ‘legalize upto 30% illegal portion of their buildings’.
Of this, IMC could however so far dispose of not more than 5% cases by providing ‘certificate of approval’ as legalization of upto 30% illegal portion of their buildings while remaining cases are yet to either be approved or rejected. According to the official sources, most applications can’t be processed due to seeking permission to legalize front MOS, illegal constructions on government land, no space to douse fire, if erupts, construction within 30 meters of a waterbody etc.
Meanwhile, the applicants are under the impression that an illegal portion of their buildings now won’t be demolished as they have paid the compounding fee. This is however not the case, senior IMC officials said.
“People have applied by paying compounding fee on the basis of self-assessment of illegal portion/construction of their buildings” mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava said adding that IMC will carry out assessment of illegal portion/construction, as applied by paying the compounding fee while the legally permissible applications will be disposed of.