SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Urban Development Authority will seal the 12 illegal buildings constructed in violation of the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2011, by April 30 as per the order of the High Court of Meghalaya.
The full bench of the High Court in an order on Friday said that the sealing of the buildings should be carried out within two weeks.
The owners of the 12 buildings to be affected in the process include Narayan Prasad Jhunjhunwala at Police Bazaar, Nilesh Tibrewalla at Thana Road, Satyabrato Baidya at Jail Road, Ajit Das Gupta at Jail Road, Bidur Das at Jail Road, Uday N. Shukla at Oakland Road, Rajkumari Sinha at Bivar Road, Mentok Ri-Project Pvt. Ltd at Bivar Road, Maruf Elahi at Bivar Road, Beroline Khongshei at Laban, Mohendro Rapsang at Keating Road and Saini Pala at Motinagar.
It was on April 10 that the full bench of the Court had directed the East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner, the superintendent of police and the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to seal the illegal buildings.
During the April 10 hearing, the Court perused the records including the photographs of the illegal construction in violation of Building Byelaws.
“It is submitted that despite the orders dated April 11, 2014 and August 11, 2014, passed by the Division Bench, there is no effective sealing of the premises in terms of the directions of the Court. Thus, for effective implementation of Court’s orders we constitute a Committee comprising of Sanjay Goyal, Deputy Commissioner, as Chairman, with M. Kharkrang, Superintendent of Police and Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shillong, as members who will carry out the directions of the Division Bench and seal the premises in question as pointed out in the order and the photographs,” the Court said.
The High Court also directed that a senior officer not below the rank of Secretary, MUDA, shall also be associated with the exercise for assistance during the sealing of the buildings.
“He shall provide requisite manpower and necessary logistic support to carry out the directions of the Court. The Committee shall also visit the site of construction and identify the violations, if any,” the Court said.
On April 11, 2014, the Court had stayed the construction of high-rise buildings beyond the permissible limit of ground floor and three more floors (G+3) through an interim order.
Following the April 11 order, a committee was constituted by the High Court to examine cases of violation of the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2011. The committee listed 12 sky rise buildings in the city violating the order. Another set of 12 more buildings was also named by the Committee later. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for May 1.
