Gangtok: As part of its face-lift for the capital Gangtok , a latest notification dated.June28,2007 issued by UD&HD department of Government of Sikkim, is a serious and well motivated efforts on the part of Acting Chief Minister cum Minister UD&HD to put some brake on illegal vertical and horizontal constructions in capital Gangtok turning its skyline into unplanned concrete jungle.
It is informed that unauthorized constructions will no longer be permitted anywhere in the Sikkim and all unauthorized constructions on government land are ow liable for demolition after the lapse of grace period of 90 days to owners of such illegal constructions to regularize their unauthorized building areas from the date of issuing above notification i.e. June28,2007. further, The regularization process now involves a penalization as it requires fee of amount value of 100% of market rate of land also includes a reference to its earlier notification dated.December 31,2004 prohibiting illegal constructions.it has reminded that prior permission must be obtained before premise owners start renovation or create additional partitions in their buildings.
In this respect, a standard heights plan for the the maximum number of floors permissible is in accordance with law which specifies the number of floors according to the stability zone of the area as identified by the Mines and Geology department.The maximum number of floors permissible is 5 1/2 in the most stable zone"1".There are 5 categories of zone with the last zone"5" limits only 1 1/2 storeys construction.
The construction are not only required to have their vertical limit in the accordance with the zone they fall but also to comply with their approved blueprints. As such , a building in zone"1" ma have only 3 storeys as per its Blueprint Plans(BPP) but at a later stage two more floors may have been added without approval of government.This addition is also required to be regularized to avoid its demolition after expiry of 90days grace period.
The government also admits mushrooming of unauthorized constructions and that UD&HD department have failed to have a data bank of such unauthorized constructions and extensions.It is now declared all these unapproved buildings or their extension are liable to be demolished in accordance with Sikkim Building Construction Regulation,1991 after September 30,2007.
now time will only tell that the government's commitment to demolitions of illegal construction as well as extension is more than just a plan on paper as mushrooming of constructions do involve people with connections and political reach.
