Coimbatore Corporation, it appears, has opened the floodgates for illegal construction in the city, violated the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019 and also asked the Tangedco to do so.

The Corporation’s transgression comes in a June 30 letter Corporation Commissioner Sravan Kumar Jatavath wrote to Chief Engineer, Coimbatore Distribution Circle, asking the Tangedco to not insist on building completion certificate, but go by its tax assessment book to grant power connection to buildings.

The Corporation wrote the letter saying it had learnt that the Tangedco demanded the certificate from people applying for power connection and those people in turn approached the Corporation.

In the city, the Corporation assessed buildings for property tax only after the construction was complete.

Therefore, the Chief Engineer would do well to instruct his subordinates to not insist on building completion certificate, the Commissioner had added in the letter.

Objecting to the Corporation’s stand, consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon said the Corporation had opened the floodgates for illegal construction in the city because the Tangedco not asking for building completion certificate would mean that every illegal or unauthorised construction could have power connection.

This went against the very purpose for which the State Government had framed the Rules – stopping illegal or unauthorised buildings.

If owners of such illegal or unauthorised buildings could get power and water connection what mechanism was the government left with to check the construction, he asked.

Mr. Kathirmathiyon, who had also taken to court the Corporation on the illegal construction issue, said that the Commissioner’s letter equating property tax assessment with building completion certificate was wrong because the Corporation assessed all buildings, irrespective of violation.

Whereas, building completion certificate was different in that it issued the certificate only for buildings built as per the approved plan, he added.

The letter also went against the very undertaking that the Corporation had given to the Madras High Court that it assessing buildings for tax did not mean that it approved of violation in construction.

S. Kanagasundaram, head of the licensed building surveyors, said the Corporation Commissioner’s letter had set a dangerous precedent and went against the need for regulating construction.

That the Corporation had chosen to do so would mean that people need not approach even the Local Planning Authority to obtain building completion certificate and then use it to avail of power connection.

The Authority issued the certificate for the buildings whose plan it approved.