Civic notice to engineer for cancellation of licence

NASHIK: The civic body has issued a notice to architect Vijay Sanap of Soham Architectural and Engineering Services seeking explanation in seven days on the building norm violation, failing which, his licence would be cancelled.
On April 23, Kailash Mhetre, consumer, had written to then municipal commissioner about cancelling Sanap's licence for building norm violation and cheating the Nashik Municipal Corpoation (NMC) since he was licensed by it.On July 30, he sent a reminder to the new municipal commissioner following which the town planning department issued the notice to Sanap. On August 3, the town planning department sent the notice to Sanap.
"I was informed by former municipal commissioner in May that he had forwarded my letter to the town planning department after signing it. I sent a reminder to the present municipal commissioner asking him about the status of blacklisting the builder and cancellation of licence of the engineer," said Mhetre.
Sanap said, "I have not received the copy of the court order. I never got any notice from the court. As per the order of the court, the builder should be giving compensation to the consumers.tnn Also, the builder has challenged the decision in the higher court. Whatever permission I took from the NMC was legal. If the construction is wrong, the NMC can demolish it. I have not failed in my duties or cheated the corporation. I will ask for the court copy from the NMC and give the explanation in time. I may also seek legal help for being dragged into this."
Mhetre rubbished Sanap's claims saying that the connsuemr court judgment mentions Sanap as the consultant in the case.
"He has not just cheated the consumers but even the NMC. He did go to the court to submit the affidavit. In the statement of NMC 60 -62 sq m is mentioned as carpet area while in the affidavit it is 90 sq m," said Mhetre.
BACKGROUNDER:
The district consumer court had in April asked a builder to pay compensation ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 19 lakh to each of the complainants for violations that came to light after the construction of the building.
The flat buyers had alleged that they were charged as per the plan approved by the civic body but the plan was not followed. They procured the documents from the NMC through RTI and dragged the builder to the court.
Six persons approached the consumer court against Mumbai-based Shree Krishna Constructions alleging unfair trade practice and giving false declaration to the NMC.
The court ruled in favour of the complainants.
"The case was about providing less carpet area than promised, not following development control rules, deviation from sanctioned plan, sale of common area, non-formation of apartment association, sale of common area along with ground floor flat despite getting notice from the NMC for enclosure, which was done after getting the completion certificate and giving false declaration to NMC," said Mhetre, one of the petitioners.
He said the construction of the building was completed in 2013 and that he had approached the builder Ashok Bodhwani and architect Sanap for more than a year in vain. So, he began filing RTI pleas to the NMC from January 2014.