Chennai: While the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has been criticised for not approving plots and failing to create awareness about the extension of plot regularisation scheme by six months from May, the officials say that there has been a substantial rise in the number of plots being approved by the agency.
“As of 26 August, 1,950 plot applications were received and among them, close to 1,700 framework have been approved in the last few weeks,” said sources from CMDA.
The scheme was introduced to favour innocent buyers who had invested in unapproved plots before 20 October 2010.
Following this a court order was passed to revise it and the plot regularisation scheme to approve the unapproved plots was announced by government orders (GOs) 78 and 172.
The CMDA approves the framework for unapproved layouts wherein the boundaries are fixed and examined, roads are networked and checked for other issues. The individual plots will be regularised by the local body adhering to norms set by the CMDA.
Talking about the benefits of the project, the official said,”People who apply for regularisation of their unapproved plots will be exempted from the 10 per cent OSR land charges.”
“We are trying to expedite the process. If a person applies for approval, we try to grant the permission in maximum three weeks. Weekly review meetings are held to monitor the process,” added the official.
However, residents, architects and builders in the city allege that there has been delay in granting approval even after introducing the scheme.
Elaborating, architect Sam Ponraj said,”Even though the scheme was introduced for the welfare of plot-owners, I don’t really see that the process has been speeded up. Delay both in the local body and CMDA levels are seen.”
“It has been more than a year since I applied for approval of a plot in Ambattur – the authorities are yet to inspect the site,” he added.