MLA for Udupi Yashpal Suvarna said on Tuesday that absence of a comprehensive master plan for Udupi city since 2008 has been posing many problems for people. Hence he will hold consultations with all stakeholders within a fortnight to adopt the plan and get it approved by the government.

Speaking after receiving petitions from people at the office of Udupi Urban Development Authority (UUDA), the MLA said that he will hold consultations with officials of UUDA, Udupi City Municipal Council, engineers’ association, builders’ association and other urban planners to take their inputs before finalising the plan.

Adopting a comprehensive plan will address many issues of people, he said.

The MLA said that the UUDA should exempt owners of such properties which were regularised decades ago under Section 94 (CC) of Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1964 from getting single site approval for re-constructing their houses. Owners of such properties owned land ranging between three and five cents. The government has given title deeds to such properties. If their owners are made to obtain single site approval, they will lose a significant portion of their property for road widening. They should be issued licence for reconstructing houses without single site approval.

Obtaining single site approval can be made mandatory for new layouts and not for old government layouts, he said.

The MLA said recently, two stages of approval, temporary and final, have been introduced for getting single-site approval for constructing houses. It is causing unnecessary delay in getting approval for building houses. In such areas where road widening has not been proposed the final approval can be given for building houses. If road widening has been proposed, it is appropriate to apply two stages of approval.

UUDA Commissioner R. Manjunath and other officials were present on the occasion.