CHENNAI:The stalemate between Madras High Court-appointed monitoring committee and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) could end soon, with a consensus evolving on the 15 action paras stipulated by the High Court in its order on August 23, 2006.

“We are working out a consensus based on the 2006 Madras High Court order which had made the Monitoring Committee relevant,” said sources after a crucial meeting recently.

“We will soon hold another meeting where we expect a consensus on the 15 action paras stipulated by the High Court. After that we will be submitting a report to the court,” sources added.

The report is being filed by the monitoring panel after the High Court, hearing a petition filed by a non-official panel member, ordered for a detailed summary of what happened till now after its 2006 directive to stem the problem of unauthorised constructions.

The action taken report (ATR) has been the bone of contention, with non-official members not approving the report after the court directed the monitoring panel to submit a report before December 23, 2014 on the steps taken so far.

The High Court had stipulated 15 points for the committee to look into and decide, which included updating the existing rules and laws, recommending punishments for violations, identifying those responsible for the situation, and determine the veracity of claims of excemption among others. It is learnt that despite numerous suggestions by the monitoring panel, only one recommendation on completion certificate was implemented while the rest never saw the light of the day.

According to sources, the court’s directive to the monitoring panel to act on multi-storeyed commercial complexes more than four storeys high so that necessary modifications could be done to fulfil the norms for fire safety and car parking facilities in building premises was diluted after the government introduced a new ordinance on July 22, 2007, notifying deferring of coercive action on unauthorised building put up before July 2007 as a moratorium. It is learnt that the stringent action for unauthorised buildings built between July 1999 (the cut off date prescribed in the High Court order) and July 2007 (prescribed in the new regularisation scheme of State government under section 113-c) diluted the High Court order of 2006.

The monitoring panel met after a long time in full strength last Saturday.  The vacant posts of three non-official members were filled after the first Bench of Madras High Court appointed S R Masilamani, head of department of planning, school of architecture and planing, Anna University, R Santhanam, former vice-chairman, CMDA and Tara Murali, conservation architect and former secretary of Indian Institute of Architects. They were appointed after PT Krishnan of Intach and L M Menezes resigned while architect and urban planner A Srivatsan migrated to Ahmedabad.

The meeting was held in the presence of the advocate-general of Madras High court and Deivasahayam’s advocate ML Rajah.