Does one need permission from the local municipal authority to construct a wall around a piece of land? Is it necessary to get permission to build walls around vacant plots regardless of their size?
This was the question posed by a senior government official to his fellow officers after a top official called him to complain about the local municipal authority demolishing a wall built by his department around the department property, citing the lack of requisite permission for the erection of the wall as the reason.
The aggrieved official wanted to know the precise rule position about permission to construct a wall. The municipal official then enquired from his senior staff members about the issue when most felt it was not required. However, the senior official was not too sure and poured through the old Municipal Acts when he realised that municipal permission is mandatory find of construction, including a wall.
Apparently, the government wanted to remove the rule when the municipal rules were being revised. But the due process was not done, and it got retained in the fresh set of rules, too! Hence, there is no exemption from obtaining permission to build a wall or make any construction.
“I have been in this department for most of my career, and yet, I had to pour through several documents before I could find the rule. It is because a single source of information was not readily available”N. SatyanarayanaDirector of Municipal Administration, Telangana
It set the then Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) N. Satyanarayana’s thinking. “I have been in this department for most of my career, and yet, I had to pour through several documents before I could find the rule. It is because a single source of information was not readily available,” he explains.
This has led to the setting up of a ‘Municipal Knowledge Centre’ inside the DMA office on the ground floor at Masab Tank. The space, which was earlier a dumping ground for broken, discarded furniture and junk, was transformed during the COVID pandemic into a swank research and resource centre with the latest workstations, furniture and a library.
“It is to serve as a one-stop access centre for city managers to know about government schemes and municipal governance, engineering, greenery, solid waste disposal, finances, etc. Any department official can make use of the facility as we have stacked the various Acts and information material subject-wise,” says Mr. Satyanarayana, now the first full-fledged chairperson of TS Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).
The knowledge centre has books on town planning, elections, taxes, engineering, sanitation, solid waste management, poverty alleviation, etc. The objective is to facilitate mutual interaction and learning between city managers, academicians and researchers for smart urban solutions, he adds.
