GHMC, following the Telangana High Court’s directions, has devised a workflow chart defining and revising the roles and responsibilities of the staff when dealing with unauthorised structures.
As per the revision, the officials will have to issue notices to the violators at least twice, besides notifying the complainants about the action taken or not taken against the structures, irrespective of the platform where the complaints are lodged.
An internal circular was issued by the GHMC Commissioner towards this effect recently, after directions by the High Court for an efficient grievance redressal mechanism.
Grievances received
Grievances are received through different platforms including My GHMC app, web portal, social media, and also directly from the citizens at the circle and zonal level offices, apart from the headquarters.
The freshly issued orders made the deputy commissioners/ deputy city planners/ assistant city planners responsible for uploading all the complaints on the same day, into the ‘unauthorised construction/ layout information management system’ website, and forwarding them to the field-level engineers for verification.
The engineer will have to carry out a physical inspection to verify the complaint within five days and upload a report in the system.
Time frame defined
If the complaint is found genuine, a reply should be furnished to the complainant within 15 days, informing the receipt of the grievance and proposed action. In the same time limit, show cause notice attested by the Deputy Commissioner should be issued to the owner/developer asking him to furnish a reply within a week’s time.
In case the reply is rejected, or no reply is furnished, a speaking order should be issued by the Deputy Commissioner, stating reasons and justification as the case may be, and giving a week more to rectify the violations found. In case no such rectifications are made in seven days, action should be taken against the structure.
The same procedure more or less should be followed in case of suo-motu detection of unauthorised structures too, as per the orders.
Following the High Court’s instructions, dedicated officers have been appointed in circle, zonal offices and the headquarters to receive the complaints, scan and upload them, before forwarding them to the respective engineers. The officers, who are of the Assistant Municipal Commissioner rank, should be available in respective offices during office hours, the orders stipulated.
An official under the condition of anonymity, said the orders have been issued in supersession of the earlier orders in line with the TS-bPASS Act, which does away with the clause of issuing notices to the violators.
