Shillong Jan 31: Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) chief executive member, H.S. Shylla on Thursday questioned the MDA government’s decision that asked district councils in the state to implement the same Meghalaya Building Bye-laws of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in areas outside municipalities.

“The decision of the state government is just like ‘old wine in a new bottle’ because people will only be subjected to face the same problems,” KHADC chief HS Shylla told reporters, a day after the State Cabinet decided to hand over power to the three autonomous district councils (ADCs) to implement the building bye-laws in their respective jurisdictions.

Shylla said people have been opposing the building byelaws implemented by the state government through the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) due to delay and exorbitant fee being charged for building permission.

“The state government has taken this decision in haste, but it is too late now, because the model code of conduct will be effective from February 2, in view of the upcoming district council polls,” Shylla said.

Shylla said the district council should be allowed to implement its own building byelaws which have been framed to address various grievances faced by the residents when they applied for building permission.

“We cannot implement the defective building byelaws of the state government,” he said while adding that the draft building byelaws of the District Council has fixed reasonable fee for building permission.

The KHADC chief while admitting that the district council does not have enough manpower including technical persons to implement the building byelaws, said that the Council will have to be strengthened and the Council cannot compromise with the issue related to safety.