Special camps help ease plot regularisation

Chennai: Owners of the unapproved plots in the city need not run from pillar to the post now as the Greater Chennai Corporation has begun conducting special camps to help plot owners at their doorsteps. Such camps will be conducted on weekends till the closure of regularisation scheme on May 3. The civic body conducted 45 such camps on Saturday in various parts of the city for the first time. 

“The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) had been according in-principle approvals to unapproved layouts. According to norms, the corporation has to issue a regularisation certificate for the plots lying in layouts that had received CMDA approval,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

It is learnt that the CMDA has issued in-principle approvals to more than 100 layouts in last 10 days.  “Many plot owners are still unaware of the regularisation scheme. To sensitise the unapproved plot owners, we had conducted camps near the layouts that received in-principle approvals,” a Chennai Corporation executive engineer told Deccan Chronicle.

The civic official also added that most of the 120 layouts approved by CMDA have 30 to 40 plots. But only 2 or 3 such plot owners have applied. “Remaining layouts will soon be approved by CMDA,” according to the official. During the camps, the officials erected banners at the layouts to apprise owners about the regularisation process.

“We also made microphone announcement and handed over flyers to security guards with contact details,” the official said. According to the Chennai Corporation data, nearly 500 layouts are located in the city with a total of nearly 15,000 individual plots.

“Majority of the plots are in the southern part of the city, with Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones on the top. Madavaram, Ambattur, Valasaravakkam and Alandur also have considerable numbers,” the executive engineer said.