Water supply, streetlights in unapproved layouts by March 31
Works to take off by March 31
Coimbatore:The Coimbatore Corporation has decided to begin by March 31 the works to provide drinking water lines and streetlights in 535 unapproved layouts in the city.
Coimbatore:The Coimbatore Corporation has decided to begin by March 31 the works to provide drinking water lines and streetlights in 535 unapproved layouts in the city.
Unapproved layouts
The decision was taken at a recent meeting Mayor R. Venkatachalam and Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran had with officials to review the groundwork done so far for development in unapproved layouts.
The Mayor said the meeting fixed March 31 as the deadline for the works to begin as most of the layouts had paid the development charge of Rs. 5 a sq.ft. under a scheme announced by the Government. The scheme provided for regularisation of house sites in the layouts and not the buildings.
"Our first task is to provide water supply lines for house connections and streetlights to these layouts as 85 per cent to 90 per cent of them can now be called approved ones," the Mayor said.
The next meeting would be held on March 12 to review the progress of the Corporation's efforts thus far on providing the amenities. "We will have a meeting once in five days to review the progress," he said.
Official sources in the civic body said that the Corporation would be in a better position after March 31 to implement both these works. Till then, the civic body would be busy finalising infrastructure schemes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The Corporation wanted to get the Central Government's clearance for as many schemes as possible before March 31.
Phases
The Corporation's budget that would be tabled on March 14 might have some announcement on the schemes for the unapproved layouts that were to be carried out in phases. The second phase of work would be the provision of roads and storm water drainage. The sources said the regularisation scheme and the works for the unapproved layouts would figure as a major achievement of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Congress-Left alliance.
The Mayor said the Corporation would constantly appeal to the State Government for granting exemption to some layouts that had been identified as those acquired under the Land Ceiling Act. The Corporation's contention was that the owners of sites (some of them had built houses also) had bought these not knowing of the status of the lands. Therefore, they should not be penalised.
