BPS at slow pace in Guntur district

 

According to the records, there were 8,560 illegal structures in Guntur city, but only 4,700 building owners came forward to regularise their violated structures. Similar conditions prevailed in the 12 municipalities of Guntur district. Only 800 applications were received in Tenali where the officials identified 4,000 norms violating structures. BPS applicants K. Sridhar and others said that the BPS uploading software was taking too much of time to upload BPS applications and they are forced to make rounds of office to submit applications for regularisation of their buildings. They lamented that several times they have taken the online issue to the notice of the officials. Recalling about the earlier manual system of BPS, they appealed to the officials to introduce manual system if the online problem continues. 

 

A senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the continuous extension of last date for BPS was also creating negligence among the public about regularising their buildings. He said that building owners are opining that the government will once extend BPS last date, so they are showing reluctance about regularisation. He added that in Guntur city only 50 per cent building owners came forward for BPS despite extension  of last date three times. He said that some building owners have not paid old tax dues and they fear paying huge pending taxes for BPS and this is one cause for the slow pace of BPS. 

 

Admitting about the delay, Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) officials said that earlier the BPS uploading software gave some troubles but now it was modified without technical problems. GMC commissioner C. Anuradha said that physical verification is a must for BPS. So, the GMC officials will inspect the illegal structure before regularising it. She added that GMC staff are bringing awareness about BPS scheme, this is a golden chance to regularise structures and appealed the public to make good use of BPS.