Deadline for painting roofs ends in Shimla

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 30

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) will approach the High Court and submit the list of buildings which failed to comply with the High Court orders to paint the roofs red or green by extended deadline which expired today.

“There are about 2,000 buildings, majority of them being government buildings, in the defaulters’ list which failed to comply with the HC orders. Now, the High Court will take its decision on non-compliance of its orders,” said Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar.

“The painting of roofs is mandatory under the MC Act. The SMC has powers to impose a fine of Rs50,000 but we have asked the Municipal Commissioner to be liberal in imposing the fine”, he said.

The government buildings which failed to paint their roofs red or green included the Sadar police station, PWD offices, CPWD buildings and government schools. Panwar said rain and hailstorm played a spoilsport and in view of delays caused by unforeseen circumstances and vagaries of nature we extended the deadline till April 30. Now those who have who failed to adhere to the extended deadline would be penalised.

As per the Municipal Corporation by-laws, house owners/occupants would paint their roofs after every three years. The SMC had initially asked the house owners to paint the roofs by December 31, 2014, but the same was extended as early snowfall and rain hampered the work. The deadline was extended till March 31, 2015, which was further extended by a month to enable the house owners to colour the roofs. However, the owners of some old buildings with tenants paying a meagre rent are feeling the pinch of the SMC orders as they have little mean to bear the financial burden of getting the roofs painted.

SMC to develop wi-fi module

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) will prepare a wi-fi module enabling service for free or at a nominal charge to residents in the next six months. Two ducts have already been laid to accommodate telecom companies interested in laying cables for the purpose, said Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar