PANAJI
The State government has notified the powers of empanelled architects and engineers to issue technical clearances for small structures and buildings in a move that is expected to give relief to applicants whose clearances get stuck in the quagmire of bureaucratic red-tape at the Town and Country Planning Department.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday said while speaking to the media that the notification which gives powers to notary architects and engineers to issue permissions for low-risk buildings up to 500 square metres area had been issued.
Sawant had included the proposal in his speech while presenting the 2022-23 State budget in the Goa legislative assembly earlier this week.
Earlier, the Chief Secretary Punneet Kumar Goel, IAS, had also issued orders which streamlined powers of various levels of TCP officers and clearly demarcated the jurisdiction of taluka, district and TCP headquarters in granting technical sanction for projects.
Goel, who is also the Secretary for the portfolio, had simultaneously directed the scaling up of the TCP department and PDAs’ online approval system (BPAMS) for all types of buildings up to a built-up area of 5,000 sq mts.
These reforms are expected to speed up approval granting processes suspected to face long delays due to alleged corruption-driven red tape.
