HYDERABAD, June 18: Members of district council on Wednesday pointed out to widespread violations of building and planning laws and urged the authorities concerned to subject permission for new housing schemes and projects to provision of basic amenities to residents.

The officials of Building Control Department (BCD) and Planning and Development of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) told the council session that the Sindh Building Control Ordinance 1979 lacked planning related provisions as it primarily dealt with building control.BCD’s additional director of land management wing, Ghulam Hussain Memon, said in his replies to members’ queries that the ordinance drafted after a building collapsed in Karachi did not have stricter provisions as it was merely an effort to ensure planning related safeguards in construction.

He advised general public not to book flats and plots in different schemes just on the basis of their advertisements.

The BCD director Nadeem Rizwan informed about construction-specific regulations. His department was fully enforcing the bylaws and it had carried out demolition in some cases and would do it wherever it deemed it necessary, he said.

He said that the HDA, under directives of district nazim, was collecting details of its land which had been encroached upon. The land would be developed after it had been vacated, he said.

He said that the BCD had a police escort on its disposal to help in demolition operations and in case the department noticed any deviation from approved plan he would order its demolition without reluctance.

He said that the department obtained one per cent or Rs2 million for new schemes as security, which was to be refunded after a year. The buildings that had been built before he assumed charge were also being checked to see whether they were earthquake-resistant as required under building code, he said.

To Yamin Soomro’s question about how an 11-storey plaza was being erected in Qasimabad the director said that it was not 11-storey building but if there was still any confusion it would be corrected through advertisement.

Yamin said that a myriad of plazas had been erected on Wadhu Wah, which had no adequate arrangement for drainage and water supply.

His resolution was deferred till next session when director planning and development would attend the session to answer queries about his department.

Dr. Arif Razmi supported Mehboob Abro’s resolution saying that unplanned construction was defacing the city’s geographical limits and builder mafia had become so strong that it could buy off even governments. How a no-objection certificate for a project was issued to a builder whose previous buildings remained unfinished, they asked.

Munawar Zai urged members to identify irregularities in construction and ask officers to take action against them.

Rashid Khan called for amendments to bylaws and stressed that permission for each housing scheme must be given after the builder had provided all basic amenities to residents of his finished projects. None of the 36 plazas in his union council had reserved space for parking, he complained.

Munawar Zai’s resolution was referred to Hesco’s committee as it pertained to erecting poles in the middle of roads. The district government had paid Rs1 million to Hesco for removal of poles but in vain, he said.

Zai provided details of expenditure on Rani Bagh’s renovation in answer to a resolution tabled by Yamin. The session adopted another resolution put forward by Yamin against publication 1of sacrilegious cartoons by Danish media.

The convenor issued a warning to Babu Ilyas for passing defamatory and un-parliamentary remarks and asked BCD officials to avoid jugglery of words before adjourning the session sine die.