Sidhu peeved at slow pace of building plan approvals

Ludhiana: Peeved at the slow pace of online building plan approval in the city, as compared to other small cities in the state, local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday pulled up MC officials and the building branch officials, and asked them to improve their functioning.
Citing the example of Barnala, Sidhu said as many as 1,600 building plans have been approved in the town, ever since since the online building plan facility was introduced. But in Ludhiana, the number has been low and only about 300 applications were received online, and an equal number offline. He questioned as to why Barnala was getting a far better response than what was being received in a city like Ludhiana.
One of the officials claimed that in Ludhiana, challans were being issued for illegal construction, and the amount of fine was also high. He also claimed that in towns like Barnala, there was no challaning for constructions without a building plan approval. As a result, the number of building plan approvals was much higher.
MC commissioner KP Brar, however, said she had asked officials to find out the reasons why Barnala was getting a much better response. “If they are making some extra efforts and initiatives, we can also emulate the same in Ludhiana,” she said. Brar added there was shortage of staff as well, and there were 75 vacancies in the building branch alone. “The minister has given approval to hire staff through outsourcing, and now the MC was planning to deploy these employees, particularly to check illegal structures,” she said.
Meanwhile, city-based architect Sanjay Goel said there were many problems in the system when it was launched, but now things have been streamlined. He said people should apply for an online building plan, which he said was simple and quick.