Safety is now India’s prime concern after a building fell down and killed 11 people at the end of last year.
After the building collapse at Nanakramguda that caused 11 fatalities in December, the Indian municipal administration department has announced plans to amend its laws in order to make it harder for builders to register properties.
The new law will make sure that a developer cannot sell a property without taking the mandatory permissions from the civic body out first – therefore making it harder for them to cut corners on safety.
GHMC chief city planner Devender Reddy explained:
“The revenue [registrations and stamps] department has given an in-principle clearance to the proposal, making a sanctioned plan or approval mandatory while registering a property. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has been advised to amend the relevant municipal laws to make this happen.”
The Indian state government has been considering linking building plan sanctions with property registration for some time, in an attempt to curb illegal construction.
Illegal construction has become a major problem as builders were selling property to the public without taking the necessary permissions out first. This often meant that they were unfit for occupation, as the collapse at Nanakramguda proved.
In the past, if the civic body made any attempt to demolish buildings that it deemed unsafe, it was forced to deal with the anger of the residents who didn’t want to leave their new homes – and often demanded why the government had not prevented the illegal constructions from being built in the first place.
