Rs 5,000 penalty on five civic officials over building permits

The municipal administration department has decided to impose Rs 5,000 penalty on each of five municipal officers who did not complete site verification of building permissions in their respective jurisdictions.

Director of municipal administration has issued orders to deduct the penalty amount from their salaries.

Director of municipal administration N Satyanarayana said in his order said Mani Bushan (Narsapur municipality), K Yashwanth Reddy (Kamareddy), Yadaiah (Ibrahimpatnam), T Suresh (Khammam corporation) and Mohammed Shahraz Ahmed (Makthal) were sitting on 58 building permission applications.

While Makthal officer was not clearing the application for the past 42 days, it was 29 days in case of Khammam corporation officer. The highest number of applications 19 are pending with Mani Bushan for the past 19 working days. “This is a gross violation of the mandate of the government’s TSbPASS Act.

As per the Act, the government gives instant approval for the buildings up to 500 square metres and height up to 10 metres, (residential) through online self-certifications. But the respective officers have to visit the sites and verify the details later. But they failed to perform their duties,” the government order said.

The government asked to deduct the penalty amount in their February salary and report compliance by March 5.