Drive against building violations from next week

CHENNAI: Criticised by the Madras High Court-constituted Monitoring Committee for its poor performance in taking effective action against unauthorised structures in the city, the Chennai Corporation is likely to begin a massive drive against such buildings from next week.Civic body sources say authorities could start the drive against buildings (constructed after obtaining building permission from the Corporation) across the 10 zones that have deviated from their approved building plan.For its part, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) would be taking appropriate action against those multi-storied buildings identified for deviating from the original plan cleared by the authority.It may be noted that the civic body and other local bodies in the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) had come under criticism at the Monitoring Committee’s meeting held in December last year.In that meeting, the Committee had expressed concerns on the poor performance of local bodies in taking effective enforcement action against unauthorised and deviated buildings.In the Monitoring Committee’s latest meeting held on Friday, the issue came up for thorough discussion among the members and, in the end, the committee decided to seek a ‘status report’ from the Chennai Corporation and other local bodies on their plan of action against unauthorised buildings.Chennai Corporation is expected to submit the status report in the next meeting slated for August.