Digambar Kandarkar, chairman of the Improvements Committee in the Mayor-in-Council recently proposed that BMC should take an administrative decision by relaxing some of its conditions. Kandarkar, in charge of buildings proposals, is keen on clearing thousands of old cases where an OC is pending due to a ``technical cause.'' Even if the builder hasn't submitted a building completion certificate, Kandarkar proposes, it's occupants should be allowed to appoint an architect themselves and submit the certificate. The consent of the original developer or architect will not be insisted upon.

It has been found that of the 2,384 buildings without an OC, more than 60 per cent are located in the P and R wards of the western suburbs. In a majority of cases (720), lack of submission of the building completioncertificate has proved to be the main hurdle in obtaining an OC. The lack of completion certificates from various other departments like sewage, storm water drain, and also from the ward officer (estates) is another reason why an OC is refused, said Kandarkar. As many as 659 such cases have been identified, he said, adding that still more serious is the fact that building proposal files are not available in 799 cases.

According to data collected from zonal offices for identifying the reason for not granting an OC, it was found that the most common reasons were: work carried out beyond the approved plan and commencement certificate, infrastructural development not carried out within the layout, and roads not being handed over to BMC.

The MiC is discussing the possibility of regularising construction work beyond the permissible FSI by recovering a premium or granting an occupation certificate to only the authorised part of the building.

The BMC is also planning to tackle the issue of infrastructuraldevelopment like provision of street lights, roads, drains and sewerage arrangements. There are about 200 layouts in the suburbs where residents are deprived of these amenities. However, many buildings which don't have an OC are given water connections on humanitarian grounds, and residents have to pay two or three times the prevalent rates.

The state government had appointed a committee to look into this. The committee submitted its report to the government in October 1997. But civic sources said the state's decision is still awaited. The BMC now proposes to grant an OC subject to an undertaking from occupants that they will not complain of non-availibility of any amenities.

In other cases where developers have not handed over roads to BMC in order to avail of extra FSI, it is proposed that conditional occupation certificates be granted, so that regular water supply can be started. Many builders have also sold off flats reserved for the government as per the Urban Land Control Act. While the ULCauthorities want their flats handed over to them, Kandarkar says conditional OC should be granted as innocent occupants are not to be blamed.