‘Constructions should be in tune with an eco-discipline’

Due consideration should be given for land availability, environmental and geological issues while granting building licences, Administrative Reforms Commission chairman V.S. Achuthanandan has said.

Mr. Achuthanandan said in a release here on Monday that sites for constructing buildings should be identified after scientific studies conducted by the State Disaster Management Authority. The concept that all existing buildings should be retained needs to be changed.

A permanent system should be evolved for conducting geological studies from time to time and vacating people from sensitive zones. Functioning of granite quarries and razing mountains in hilly regions cannot be justified. All constructions should be in tune with an environmental discipline. Separate clearances should be issued for buildings and other constructions.

Disaster management

Disaster management would be a challenge in the absence separate residential, commercial and industrial zones. Models such as the houses constructed in Chile post-tsunami should be identified.

Infrastructure facilities should not be for the market. Raising resource for construction is a challenge. A consortium of cooperative banks could be formed and funds mobilised by floating bonds.

Construction in rural sector does not mean roads and bridges alone. Long-term projects should be worked jointly by local bodies, cooperative banks and the Agriculture Department to reconstruct a new production system, he said.