Shylla threatens to agitate in absence of response
SHILLONG: Nongkrem MDC HS Shylla has called for Chief Minister Mukul Sangma’s intervention to stop the Meghalaya Urban development Agency (MUDA) from extending its building laws to areas under the district council.
In an open letter to the chief minister on Sunday, the UDP MDC from Nongkrem said illegal activities are being carried out blatantly by MUDA in violation of its own parent Act, “the Meghalaya Town and Country Planning Act, 1973.”
According to Shylla, Section 1 (2) of the 1973 Act clearly mandates that it can extend to the whole of Meghalaya, excluding those areas falling under the district councils.
“It is only with the desire of any Autonomous District Council that the Act can be extended by an appropriate notification to district council areas. Neither the KHADC has ever expressed its desire nor there is any statutory notification extending the Act of 1973 to District Council areas,” he said.
Shylla pointed out that despite this, MUDA seeks to transgress the reserved domain of district councils by trying to operate its building by-laws and this is done with extraneous consideration.
“I must, with constraint, inform you that I will be forced to go to the public if your kind office does not immediately interfere,” he said in the letter.
He said the clandestine manner in which MUDA operates by issuing public notices and press releases without any supporting authorisation or executive order in records is apparent in the recent judgment dated February 16 passed by the Meghalaya High Court in a PIL.
In this context, Shylla urged the chief minister to prevail over MUDA and restrain it as well as other authorities, including MeECL and PHE, from illegally enforcing MUDA Building Bye Laws in the District Council areas superseding the statutory building rules made by the KHADC under its own statutory and constitutional authority.