Coimbatore: Going towards the numerous Superme Court orders that open space reservation (OSR) land will have to not be used for any other purposes, collector T N Hariharan has passed an undated order to regularise OSR land at Vellanapatti village panchayat in S S Kulam taluk right here.
The order issued in January, 2018 asks the block development officer, who is the special officer of Vellanaapatti panchayat, to permit an illegally constructed sewage treatment plant (STP) to function on the land, which used to be earmarked for a park by Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).
When contacted by TOI, the collector, however, retracted the order and mentioned that he would get started the method to cancel it on Wednesday itself.
"I passed the order after the high court had passed an order asking the member secretary of local planning authority to take a decision on the issue. But I would cancel it immediately and would not allow the STP to function there. STP has to be shifted to another plot nearby," mentioned the collector.
The OSR land of about 10 cents is located at a belongings named Flushing meadows, constructed by Elysium properties India non-public limited. More than 100 homes have been constructed and the house owners got building approval in 2010 for 30.56acres.
C P Senthil, a resident of flushing meadows mentioned, "We bought the property three years ago. When we came to live here, the construction of the STP had begun. But we did not realise that they were doing it illegally on OSR land. When we got to know, we filed RTI applications and collected all the details. We held meetings with the property developers and also appealed to the district collector and other officials to take appropriate action, but no action was taken."
Following this the citizens had moved to the high court docket. It had passed an order in 2016 that the construction used to be unlawful and it might not be accepted. However, because it used to be for the general public objective, the court docket had asked the member secretary to test if there used to be any manner it might be regularised within a month.
The member secretary inspected the site however did not cross any orders.
However, later in line with lawsuits from citizens, the village panchayat and the block development officer inspected the STP and famous that it used to be not functioning as per norms.
In September 2017, the BDO passed an order that the STP would be sealed. But citizens of the property petitioned the BDO towards the order and then the BDO wrote to the district collector.
"The assistant director of village panchayat had asked for an opinion from member secretary on this issue. In the letter the member secretary, Dhanraj, has clearly stated that there was no scope for regularisation. He said the village panchayat could act as per government norms," mentioned S P Thiyagarajan, an RTI activist.
"The district collector passed an order in January asking the BDO to regularise the unlawful STP. This cannot be allowed as there are various Supreme Court orders that an OSR land's purposes could not be changed for any reason. These are the lung spaces and they should be used only for the purpose they were specified for," Thiyagarajan added.
The district collector advised TOI that criminal professionals had already spoken to the citizens and motion would be taken as per the norms.
The order issued in January, 2018 asks the block development officer, who is the special officer of Vellanaapatti panchayat, to permit an illegally constructed sewage treatment plant (STP) to function on the land, which used to be earmarked for a park by Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).
When contacted by TOI, the collector, however, retracted the order and mentioned that he would get started the method to cancel it on Wednesday itself.
"I passed the order after the high court had passed an order asking the member secretary of local planning authority to take a decision on the issue. But I would cancel it immediately and would not allow the STP to function there. STP has to be shifted to another plot nearby," mentioned the collector.
The OSR land of about 10 cents is located at a belongings named Flushing meadows, constructed by Elysium properties India non-public limited. More than 100 homes have been constructed and the house owners got building approval in 2010 for 30.56acres.
C P Senthil, a resident of flushing meadows mentioned, "We bought the property three years ago. When we came to live here, the construction of the STP had begun. But we did not realise that they were doing it illegally on OSR land. When we got to know, we filed RTI applications and collected all the details. We held meetings with the property developers and also appealed to the district collector and other officials to take appropriate action, but no action was taken."
Following this the citizens had moved to the high court docket. It had passed an order in 2016 that the construction used to be unlawful and it might not be accepted. However, because it used to be for the general public objective, the court docket had asked the member secretary to test if there used to be any manner it might be regularised within a month.
The member secretary inspected the site however did not cross any orders.
However, later in line with lawsuits from citizens, the village panchayat and the block development officer inspected the STP and famous that it used to be not functioning as per norms.
In September 2017, the BDO passed an order that the STP would be sealed. But citizens of the property petitioned the BDO towards the order and then the BDO wrote to the district collector.
"The assistant director of village panchayat had asked for an opinion from member secretary on this issue. In the letter the member secretary, Dhanraj, has clearly stated that there was no scope for regularisation. He said the village panchayat could act as per government norms," mentioned S P Thiyagarajan, an RTI activist.
"The district collector passed an order in January asking the BDO to regularise the unlawful STP. This cannot be allowed as there are various Supreme Court orders that an OSR land's purposes could not be changed for any reason. These are the lung spaces and they should be used only for the purpose they were specified for," Thiyagarajan added.
The district collector advised TOI that criminal professionals had already spoken to the citizens and motion would be taken as per the norms.
Collector retracts his order on OSR land at Vellanapatti
![Collector retracts his order on OSR land at Vellanapatti]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
February 01, 2018
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