Hyderabad: Exactly a decade ago the Telangana govt had made provisions for setting up the Municipal Building Tribunal (MBT) to deal with building-related cases, especially unauthorised structures. The state govt informed the Telangana high court almost four years ago (April 2022) that it would constitute the tribunal within four weeks. To date, the govt did not set up the MBT at a time when unauthorised structures are mushrooming in the state, especially in Greater Hyderabad.According to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials, as many as 6,000 cases are pending with various courts, and 80% of them are on illegal constructions. In some cases, the owners or builders obtained stay orders from the courts, and the town planning wing could not demolish them. In the other 20% of cases, builders and owners approached the courts when the GHMC and other civic bodies denied or revoked permissions, or over land issues. The high court, in 2022, also observed that there was an urgent need for a building tribunal.The tribunal should be set up with two or three members, with a retired district judge cadre officer as chairman and one retired municipal town planning officer of director cadre as technical member. The HC is to recommend the name of the district judge, and the state govt to nominate the technical member. Some names were suggested to the state in 2017 itself, but the govt did not constitute the tribunal.Forum For Good Governance (FGG), a not-for-profit organisation, wrote several letters to chief ministers, municipal ministers, and even municipal administration secretaries over the past 10 years, and also filed a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to the state govt on the tribunal. “Had the state govt taken steps to constitute the tribunal, there would have been no need for an agency like HYDRAA to demolish unauthorised structures,” FGG president M Padmanabha Reddy told TOI on Friday. “Secondly, the earlier govt recommended eight names, including retired and suspended officials of town planning services. According to Section 462-A of the GHMC Act, 2016, the technical member should be a serving officer. The govt should call for a fresh list of eligible persons for the tribunal, as one recommended person is facing cases for disproportionate assets worth 250 crore, is suspended, and some are even facing vigilance cases.” He said the govt should appoint persons with integrity and a clean record.Sources in the municipal administration said the file for setting up the tribunal was under circulation, and the members would be appointed in a couple of weeks. They hoped that the tribunal would become operational soon.
