SHILLONG, Jan 9: The state government will amend the Meghalaya Town Country and Planning (Amendment) Act, 2004 to recognise the three Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) as among competent authorities to issue building permissions in areas outside the jurisdiction of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
A decision towards this effect was taken during the joint meeting of the Urban Affairs department and the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) held in the third week of December last year.
KHADC Executive Member in-charge of Building Bye-Laws, Paul Lyngdoh told The Shillong Times that the state government will amend the Act to recognise the ADCs as among authorities to issue building permissions.
“We had suggested that the state government can initially come up with an ordinance by notifying in the gazette till an amendment bill of the Meghalaya Town Country and Planning (Amendment) Act, 2004 is tabled in the Assembly,” Lyngdoh said.
According to him, once the ADCS are recognised as competent authorities, they will have the power to legislate or formulate their own bye-laws in areas falling outside MUDA.
“We can also adopt the bye-laws formulated by the state government,” he said.
Earlier, the KHADC had rejected the Meghalaya Building Bye-Laws, 2021, notified by the Urban Affairs department, following the observation that they are against public interest.
Lyngdoh had stated there is total confusion and chaos since the state government had not incorporated whatever was agreed upon during the meeting with the Executive Members handling building bye-laws in the three ADCs.
“We had insisted that the demarcation of the scheduled areas should fall under the purview of the council. The ADCs have been mentioned only in the definition of the new bye-laws,” he had stated. He had observed that the new bye-laws have not defined the jurisdiction of the ADCs properly.
Lyngdoh had said that a major cause of confusion is the provision that the MUDA will grant building permission if a project is on a piece of land measuring more than 50,000 sq. ft in the scheduled areas.
“This is not acceptable since the schedule areas are purely under the purview of the council. How can it come under the purview of the state government only because of the size of the area?” he had argued.