Construction of Buildings
NOCs to be thing of the past
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 14
State Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia said today that the government would do away with the system of procuring no objection certificates (NOC) from the municipal body for various types of constructed buildings across the state.

Talking to The Tribune, the minister said the process to abolish the system had begun and a formal notification would be issued soon. He said one of the reasons behind the decision was an undue delay, which people were facing in obtaining an NOC from civic bodies.

Under the prevailing system, after the construction of a building (residential/commercial/other), it is mandatory for the owner to procure an NOC from the civic body. The system is in place to ensure that no constructed building comes up in deviation from the sanctioned building plan because there have been thousands of cases, wherein commercial and residential buildings had come up in the violation of the building bye-laws. A few years ago, NOC was made a mandatory document for getting power connection.

Kalia said, “After having discussions on this issue, we have decided to abolish the system of obtaining an NOC. Under the present system, obtaining an NOC is a lengthy process. Before issuing an NOC, officials are supposed to check pendency of dues and many other things, following which consumers face hurdles especially in getting connection for different utility services.”

When asked whether this decision would encourage violators to indulge in unauthorised constructions besides violating the building norms and deviating from sanctioned plan, Kalia defended his decision stating that they had only removed one check from those making any sort of building. “It is correct that problem of building bye-laws violations exist but it is the primary duty of municipal bodies to ensure that no unauthorised construction comes up. Hence, one check is till there”, he said, adding that their decision was aimed at ensuring that people did not face any kind of harassment.

Meanwhile, the development seems to have not gone down well with the state municipal authorities, the majority of whom feels that this decision will lead to widespread violations and loss of revenue to the municipal bodies.

“Under the prevailing system, if a building owner deviates from the sanctioned building plan or indulges in any other violation, it used to get exposed during physical verification before issuing an NOC.

Besides initiating action against non-compoundable structures, the civic body also used to get revenue in form of the composition fee for compoundable structures. Also, it is practically not possible to keep an eye on all underconstruction buildings. We don’t think that doing away with NOC would be wise step”, said several municipal officials.