THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The town planning department is divided over the decision of the state government to have three different building rulesfor each local body, based on its location. The recent meeting convened by the local self-government department witnessed an exchange of opposing views, with officials citing that three set of rules would result in practical inconvenience.

"If the idea is to do away with confusion arising from various factors, the rules should be unified enlisting provisions for a panchayat, corporation and municipality . Once we have three different rule books for allotting permits, officials would always be in the dark," said a town planning official.

Town planning experts stressed on the need for further classification in The Municipality Act besides diversifying building rules.

"It is perfectly logical to have separate building rules for an area with 50,000 people and a place with 5 lakh people. Functional characteristics, density of a location vary from one place to another which necessitates the application of separate set of rules. However it is equally important that we have an act separately for corporation, municipality and panchayat just like having specific building rules," said former chief town planner A Kasturirangan.

Kasturirangan had earlier recommended the need to have a Kerala Corporation Act along the lines of Kerala Municipality Act and Kerala Panchayati Raj Act.