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Protest against BPS mounts

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakhapatam Apartment Residents’ Welfare Association (VARWA) objected to the campaign of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on Building Penalisation Scheme and described some of its actions as highly objectionable and as tantamount to disrespect of the directions given by the AP High Court.

The VARWA delegation, comprising its president Ch.L.N. Sastry and general secretary A.V. Ramana Rao, and led by MLC M.V.S. Sarma, made a representation to Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar Meena on Monday. A large number of worried apartment owners, many of them senior citizens, who had received the notices came to the municipal office to represent their woes.

Mr. Sarma said instead of identifying people who had violated the building laws, all apartment residents were being treated as violators and the GVMC’s insistence that everyone should apply for BPS or be prepared for penalisation was illegal. Besides, the BPS was under the scrutiny of the high court which had asked the government not to proceed further with it. The Chief City Planner stating that 25 per cent of property tax would be collected as penal charge for deviations up to 5 per cent amounted to contempt of court, the MLC contended.

He and VARWA representatives also took exception to GVMC staff visiting apartments and threatening demolition. They wanted ‘coercive’ measures be stopped forthwith and implement the scheme in a democratic manner. The MLC said the scheme should be voluntary like the BRS in 1998 and charges also be on par with that scheme, and for calculation of penalisation charges land value at the time of construction should be taken into account instead of January 1, 2008.

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