SHILLONG, JAN 16: The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has decided to file a petition before the Meghalaya High Court against MUDA for illegal encroachment into the scheduled areas.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the ruling People Democratic Forum (PDF) in the KHADC on Monday attended by 23 MDCs from United Democratic Alliance (UDA), UDP, HSPDP and KHNAM.
“We have unanimous decided to file a fresh petition before the Court against the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) on the matter,” KHADC chief PN Syiem told reporters after the meeting.
He said that the continued illegal encroachment of MUDA by implementing the building bye-laws beyond its jurisdiction has affected the people residing in the scheduled areas.
They (people) are subjected to unnecessary harassment in view of the directions to the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) not to give electricity and water supply to newly constructed houses without building permission from the MUDA.
He informed that the district council is preparing to draft the petition which will be filed soon after the Meghalaya High Court resumes its office on January 28.
Earlier, the KHADC was only impleaded as a party in a similar petition filed by one Tirot Sing. “However understanding that this may take time, we have decided to file a fresh petition to ensure the intervention of the court is speed up,” he said.
The state government went implementing the MUDA Bye-Laws in the scheduled areas in compliance with the order passed by the High Court on the petition filed by Tirot Sing.
This came after the state government’s decision to keep in abeyance the implementation of the MUDA building bye laws outside the municipal areas.
Reacting to a query, Syiem said that in fact the state government should have filed a petition against the order passed by the division bench of the High Court to the Supreme Court.
“However it is surprising that the state government is keeping quiet and instead went ahead and implemented the bye-laws which are totally against the wish of the people,” he added.
Recalling that the state government and the KHADC during a meeting earlier last year unanimously decided to study documents on the matter, the council’s chief however said nothing concrete have come up till today from this meeting.
“The state government was not able to show the documents to prove that the KHADC had given its consent for implementation of the building byelaws in its jurisdiction, which indicates that it only wants to bulldoze the people,” he said.
On the High Court’s order with regards to the petition filed by the Shillong Cantonment Board, Syiem said, “We hope that if the Cantonment is allowed to implement its own bye-laws, the same will be for the district council, especially when it is a constitutional body.”
That there is a need for building bye laws is an accepted fact. However, If it is mandatory for citizen to obtain building permission prior to starting any construction then it is also their right to ask for transparency and timeline. these steps will help curb corrupt practice. The general public do not like to be harassed because of the various “red tape” involved in obtaining the building permissions. Procedures must be made transparent and simple. Authorities can set timeline for the various steps to be taken viz if the applications are in order the Building permission will be granted in ,say, 2 months time. if there is/are any modification to the building plans or any other objections the authorities needs to raise them within these 2 months and once the plans are rectified and resubmitted the permission should be granted in the next 1 month. Applicants need not go to the KHADC/ MUDA office to find out status of their applications.They should be able to follow up ONLINE.