Udhagamandalam: Municipal authorities sealed two buildings under construction near the Ooty lake on Thursday for violating the approved plans.“In one case, the approved area of construction was 800sqft. But it was found that the built-in area exceeded 1,200sqft. In the second case, four individual plans were combined together as a single building,” Ooty municipal commissioner P Narayanan told TOI.In the last two weeks, municipal authorities had sealed 22 buildings under construction, which were found either violating building plans or violation the classification of lands. “Violation of classification of land and continuing the construction is against the Supreme Court as well as the Madras high court order,” the official said.Narayanan flayed the owners of the buildings for appealing to the government. “If the building plan is violated, an appeal to the government could be considered. But it is in the hands of the government to decide. But when it comes to change in classification of lands, like getting permission for dwelling house in residential zone and using for commercial purpose, it is strictly against the court order. To curtail violation of building rules in Ooty town, we need to take concrete steps. First, we will take stringent action against the licensed civil engineers, who prepare building plans for owners and who in turn are found violating the building rules.”According to the municipal commissioner, change in classification of land and building usage could only be decided by the architectural and aesthetics aspects committee headed by the collector. He appealed to the public to follow the building rules and never fall prey to the middlemen.

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