Tiruchi, July 4, 2013: The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has clarified that it has not taken up any survey of houses situated around the ramparts of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam and those old buildings will not come under the purview of its recent initiative to seal buildings with plan violations in the city.

The civic body has come out with the clarification in the wake of “rumours” and reports in some vernacular evening dailies that action is to be initiated against 100 more buildings in Srirangam following the sealing of a building near the Rajagopuram of the temple on Monday.

Corporation Commissioner V.P. Thandapani, in a statement, urged people not to pay heed to such rumours and panic. He clarified that the building near the Rajagopuram was sealed based on a directive from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to the civic body. The court had asked the corporation to initiate action as per law on a petition filed by the temple management seeking a direction to order stoppage of the construction of the building that was close to the temple gopuram and rampart.

Based on the directive, action was initiated against the builder for taking up the construction without approval. Since the construction was not stopped even after the levy of penalty, the building was sealed after giving notice under Sec.56 and Sec.57 of the Town and Country Planning Act.

Similar action will be initiated only against new buildings constructed without plan approval or in violation of the approved plan, he said and added that the corporation was making efforts to conserve the historic rampart of the Srirangam temple.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 4, 2013.