Merged, yet many panchayats issued building permissions

Hyderabad: Soon after 51 villages were merged with the surrounding municipalities in the Outer Ring Road limits recently, it has opened the floodgates — literally — for illegal building permissions and overnight allotment of house numbers for buildings that never existed in the first place.
Leading the charge, it is alleged, were none other than officials of the merged gram panchayats who were brazenly issuing the building permissions.Even on the day the state govt issued merger notification, thousands of such permissions were given in the 51 villages. Lack of coordination between the municipal administration and panchayat raj departments has also accentuated the messy situation, it is said.


In one such instance, Keesara panchayat staff were caught red-handed when they were found issuing building permissions and granting house numbers. "They worked till 10 pm on the night of the merger notification and were issuing permissions swiftly," sources said. They hastened the process since they knew well that once a panchayat is merged with the nearest municipality, all its powers will be vested with the municipality and that they will have no say, a source said.
Medchal district collector ordered an inquiry into the permissions granted overnight by Keesara panchayat.
The state govt had issued a gazetted notification on Sept 3, paving the way for merger of 51 villages with 13 municipalities as part of its plan for the greater city corporation. However, panchayats' website to issue permissions was not blocked and no instructions were given to the panchayat secretaries not to process any files and hand over their files to the municipalities.Official sources said till date, the panchayat raj department has not issued notification for de-merger of villages from the department, while the municipal administration issued the merger notification. Ideally, both notifications should be issued simultaneously to avoid any confusion, an official explained."Gram panchayats can issue building permissions up to ground plus two floors for residential use. For buildings with three or more floors, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority issues permissions. But the e-Panchayat website was active for two days and the panchayats kept issuing building permissions without checking any documents or undertaking site inspections. They were burning midnight oil to clear the applications and issuing permissions," a senior official said.
Realising that the situation is getting out of hands, district panchayat officials sealed the records of the panchayats but are still waiting for the orders from the panchayat raj secretary on the de-merger.
Taken aback by the ‘overzealous' attitude of panchayat officials, the municipal administration department issued a statement asking people to apply for building permissions through TG-bPASS (Telangana Building Permission Approval and Self-Certification System) website, as all the building permissions in the municipalities are processed and issued through TG-bPASS website.