News: Councillors want planning wing to recover FAR dues-18-03-2021
Councillors want planning wing to recover FAR dues
Gurgaon: Lagging behind in revenue generation, the councillors are demanding a full-fledged town planning wing within the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) for recovery of dues from purchasable floor area ratio (FAR).
While the corporation has a town planning wing, it has neither a chief nor senior town planner. The city has an area of 254 sq km, of which around 120 sq km falls under the jurisdiction of department of town and country planning (DTCP) and the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP). The agencies generate around Rs 350 crore in revenue through purchasable FAR, approval and compounding fees.
But MCG, despite having 134 sq km under it, earns only around Rs 10 crore under these heads. Not just this, the corporation is yet to recover its revenue share from DTCP which the former collected under purchasable FAR in the last three years.
Last month, MCG in a reply to a councillor said around 1,250 building plans have been approved by the planning wing but only 14 occupation certificates have been granted between April 2018 till February 2021.
“The planning wing has found that property owners generally apply for building plans when the civic body starts demolition. In a majority of the cases, the existing buildings and even the additional construction made by the owners don’t have approval. Phase-wise identification of regularised colonies needs to be carried out, along with the number of buildings in them,” said an official.
Even owners of existing buildings should be issued notices for payment of development charges as they are already using the services provided by the corporation irrespective of whether or not they have applied for building plans or occupation certificates, he said.
RS Rathee, councillor of ward 34, said it is high time that the corporation strengthens its town planning wing. “There is no chief town planner and senior town planner in the corporation, the charge is with the district town planner of DTCP. MCG should have its own wing,” he said.
Kuldeep Bohra, councillor of ward 31, said: “The town planning wing will add to revenue through approval and compounding fees.”
A senior MCG official said the matter has been taken up with DTCP, but till date, no details of the amount generated from FAR has been provided to the corporation, nor has any amount been received under this head till date.
MCG chief Vinay Pratap Singh said strong enforcement action will be taken against any additional construction or for new construction without approvals. “MCG has written to HSVP and DTCP to release the corporation’s share in revenue collected in the form of purchasable FAR. A policy will be framed for approving the existing building at the time of regularisation of colonies by giving directions to bring it in conformity with norms within two years. Development charges and composition charges for the compoundable violations and purchase of FAR as applicable on the plots, however, should be paid with immediate effect,” he said.
