SHILLONG, Sept 28: The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) on Wednesday conveyed a clear message to violators of the building byelaws that they should be ready to face the heat of the law.
After convening the first meeting of the Khasi Hills Building and Structure Regulatory Authority (KHBSRA), Executive Member in-charge Building Byelaws, Paul Lyngdoh said, “I have always believed that as lawmakers we do not only make laws but we also implement laws. So if any illegal structure is raised or has been constructed along any river, whether you talk of Umkhrah or Umiam or any other rivers, for us our guidebook is the building byelaws. If they violate they will face the heat of the law and we will ensure that in the next few months, although we have fledgling entity that has just been born still in an embryonic stage, yet, we will certainly do our very best to step in wherever we are required.”
On Monday, while hearing a PIL on the cleanliness of the Umiam Lake, the Meghalaya High Court in its order passed had directed the state and the KHADC to take action against illegal construction along the Umiam Lake.
Notices were issued to Philosopher Iawphniaw, owner of Moon View Cafe, and B Khongwar, owner of Ever Banalari (Restaurant cum Guest House) after their construction works were found to be illegal and unauthorized.
When asked on the kind of action to be taken by the regulatory authority against such illegal constructions, Lyngdoh said that they would be solely and fully guided by the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2021 and the High Court order as a point of reference.
“I will go through the (court) order but I can assure you that we are stepping in into this very important area of activity where there is a lot of grey areas, a lot of violations, houses and commercial buildings coming up along streams or even in the middle of the river – these have all come to our notice and so today we took note of all these serious lapses because of the absence of the application of the rule of law and accordingly will step up action in our part,” he said while assuring “After going through the order today, I will take a final view on the matter, it has to be guided by the spirit and letter and rule of law and if at all it comes to a point where the mission has to be carried it will certainly be carried out.”
Appealing to all traditional dorbar shnong to extend their full cooperation with the Council, the EM said there are few dorbar shnongs, which have gone ahead issuing building permissions to people, which is totally wrong.
He warned, “This will only put the person, who is signing the building permissions, at risk in case the building collapses.”
According to him, the regulatory authority will take responsibility on such things as per power drawn from the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2021 as approved by the government of Meghalaya and State Assembly.
Whether there are any challenges faced by the council while implementing the building byelaws in the Schedule areas, which had then witnessed massive protest against the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA), Lyngdoh said that the situation has changed now and in fact there has been a U-turn.
He went on to explain: “Earlier people were reluctant and even were spiteful to even have an authority but today I keep receiving complaints about buildings coming up and denying the next occupant from his right to sunlight or his right of way that you’re building is coming in the way of his being able to have his car entering his compound. So if there is no authority then you allow jungle-raj, everybody can do things as per their wish, whoever is powerful, you exercise your power. Whoever doesn’t have power is simply a victim of the system but we can’t allow that kind of a situation.”
It may be mentioned here that the autonomous district councils (ADCs) have also been declared as competent authority to implement the Meghalaya Building Byelaws, 2021.
Lyngdoh said the KHADC is exercising that power and in the current situation where there is humongous growth of tourism and allied sectors, there is need to regulate the construction of these buildings.
“Today, the council was left with no other choice but to proceed with the implementation of the Building Byelaws. Let me clarify this to all of you as this has to be as crystal clear as possible that nobody can raise any structure, building, homestay, hotel etc in violation of the building byelaws.”
The various types of buildings that come for clearances from regulatory authority include residential buildings, apartment houses, special residential houses, educational buildings, commercial buildings, institutional and medical buildings, government or semipublic buildings, places of worship, which are exempted from payment of fees, industrial buildings, storage buildings and hazardous buildings.
He informed that the process of execution of the work by the authority has started and application forms are going to be available at the entry point to the council that is here in Shillong, Nongpoh, Nongstoin and Mawkyrwat.
So far, a total 400 plus applications have been cleared by the department of building byelaws. “Till today we have cleared 400 plus applications of people desiring to build houses and who are in need of loans from various banks, and have obtained a letter of recommendation from this department,” Lyngdoh said.
Further, he informed that the authority is being staffed by people who have specialized themselves in the field of engineering, PE leading the technical team of engineers, legal advisers, advisers who are experts in building byelaws drawn from MUDA, member secretary who is also joint secretary in-charge building byelaws.
