‘Strict action if bldg construction deviates from sanction plan’
Kolkata: Amid the allegations over an increase in the rise of illegal constructions in the city, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is now faced with a new problem as a councillor has complained that the licensed building surveyors (LBS) are dodging their responsibilities of supervising building plans and are instead leaving it to unlicensed persons.
Councillor Biswarup Dey has recently brought to the attention of Mayor Firhad Hakim that licensed building surveyors (LBS) are not doing their job of looking into building plans and are instead getting an unlicensed person to do it while the LBS are just putting in their signatures.
He demanded that the civic body make a rule where the LBS has to mandatorily appear in the KMC headquarters for approving building sanction plans.
He suggested that in case it is found that any building plan has been approved without the LBS’s supervision, action should be taken against the surveyor concerned. It was also suggested that councillors must play an active role in ensuring this.
The Mayor said that the reason KMC made the process of approving building sanction plans online was to ensure transparency and reduce the hassle of running to the civic body headquarters. Hakim said that the building department was always caught in allegations of corruption and hence the online mode has brought transparency into its work.
He said that now that the civic body has started a work diary for better accountability, if on-the-spot inspection reveals that the building construction has deviated from its sanctioned plan then action will be taken. He said that if the LBS is found at fault, his license can be cancelled.
The councillor said that the mayor had earlier instructed that borough chairmen must be given the list of the number of buildings sanctioned in their respective boroughs and which needs to be further passed on to the councillors but to date, no such list has been made available.
A KMC source in the building department said that a list has been sent on July 15.
