THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has provided relief to approved building designers affiliated with local bodies. An official order has been issued by the government to extend the validity of licenses that expired after April 1, 2021 until November 30. The renewal of registrations was halted following the introduction of the Unified Local Government Department. The government's intervention comes in response to a news report published by Kerala Kaumudi on the 5th of this month, which highlighted how this decision has adversely affected many professionals in the field. The All Kerala Building Designers Organization had written to the secretary and principal director of the local department to address this issue.

Currently, there are 27,000 pending applications in various district joint director offices. Previously, these applications were processed in regional joint director offices in Kollam, Kochi and Kozhikode. However, with the establishment of the Unified Local Government Department, responsibility was shifted to the Joint Directors at the district level.

As per the order, the crisis is attributed to delays in transferring files from the old offices to the new district-level offices. To prevent such difficulties in the future, K-Smart will facilitate the renewal process.

There have been allegations that district offices lack adequately trained personnel for license renewals, leading to prolonged application processing times. Since its inception, public service staffing has not been sufficient. Furthermore, with the implementation of online submission for construction applications for buildings up to 300 square meters only applications endorsed by licensed designers will be accepted. This situation had placed construction workers in a challenging position.