HYDERABAD: The state govt has decided to set up a municipal tribunal for speedy disposal of cases pertaining to unauthorised constructions, in the wake of a surge in illegal construction activities throughout the city.
The move assumes significance in view of the nearly 2.5 lakh writ petitions pertaining to illegal constructions filed in the high court in the past five years.
Earlier, the high court sought a clarification from the civic body regarding the increasing number of illegal constructions, and instructed authorities to take stringent measures to tackle the problem.
“A letter has been addressed to the high court for nomination of judges for the post of chairperson of the tribunal. The tribunal is going to be set up by the end of this month. This judicial tribunal will operate independently, handling all the subjects entrusted to them in the GHMC Act,” a top official in the municipal administration & urban development (MAUD) department told TOI.
As per Telangana Municipal Building Tribunal Rules, 2017, a provision was made in the GHMC Act, 1955 for the constitution of a judicial system. The tribunal will consist of a chairperson and up to eight members, as determined by the state govt. The members will consist of judicial members and technical members.
The chairperson can constitute one or more benches, with each bench comprising at least two members, one of whom will be a judicial member and the other a technical member.
The chairperson or a judicial member will be a serving or former district judge, while the technical member will be a serving or former officer at the level of director in Telangana Town Planning Service.
50% of complaints related to town planning
In fact, the GHMC has been witnessing nearly 50% of grievances on unauthorised constructions during the Prajavani programme held every Monday. The civic body has terminated 27 engineers working on an outsourcing basis in town planning from service due to their alleged involvement in corrupt practices.
