SHILLONG:
The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) on September 28 warned the violators of the building bye-laws to 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 are a fledgling entity that has just been born and is still in an embryonic stage yet we will certainly do our very best to step in wherever we are required.”
On September 26, the Meghalaya High Court in its order passed while hearing a PIL on the cleanliness of the Umiam lake, 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 unauthorised.
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 to the Council, the EM said there are a 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 of 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 of 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 your 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.