HC-appointed civic panel meets

Ahmedabad: The first meeting of the high court-appointed committee on civic affairs headed by retired justice Kamal Mehta took place recently. The committee would examine issues related to illegal construction, parking, drainage, quality of roads and fire safety in buildings.
The committee involves urban development principal secretary Gauri Kumar, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) commissioner IP Gautam, CEPT University assistant director Shivanand Swami, joint commissioner of police, traffic Atul Karwal and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) chairman.
Some of the key issues that HC division bench of Chief Justice KS Radhakrishnan and Justice Akil Kureshi pointed out were that the committee was to resolve the age-old problem of buildings being constructed without building use permission. The second issue is absence of fire safety features and equipment in many buildings. Another major reform process that the HC wanted the committee to devise was a process where the traffic police is called in for suggestions while earmarking commercial areas at the planning stage.