Jaipur: Jaipur Development Authority’s (JDA) decision to make rectification of setback violations mandatory before approving residential-to-commercial conversions has led to a sharp fall in approvals.Officials said more than 80% of conversion applications remained pending over the past six to seven months because the properties had setback violations requiring regularisation. More than 90% of these applications were eventually rejected after applicants showed no interest in rectifying the violations.“At present, around 15 applications are on hold because of setback violations. Under the new rule, applicants will not get approval unless they regularise these violations,” a JDA official said.Earlier, the authority granted conditional approvals after obtaining affidavits from applicants undertaking to restore setbacks before starting commercial activity. Officials said the practice has now been discontinued after it was found to be misused.“The process of conditional approval has been stopped as it has been observed that several applicants are misusing this system,” an official claimed.Applicants, however, argued that rectifying setback violations at this stage was premature because conversion approval is only one of several permissions required before a commercial establishment can begin operations.“Even after this process, an individual has to obtain several other clearances before starting a business from the plot. What is the guarantee that all those approvals will be granted?” applicant Pankaj Soni said.Anmol Devanda, a lawyer at the JDA Tribunal, said many buildings were constructed in accordance with the setback norms that existed at the time. “Building bylaws apply strictly to future approvals. New spatial regulations cannot operate retrospectively to penalise older structures,” Devanda said.Some officials also argued that change-of-land-use applications should be processed at the zonal level when the proposed land use conforms to the master plan instead of being routed through the central office. They said Section 90-A and the existing rules do not require such clearance.“A plot with an existing building should easily get CLU clearance because change of land use is entirely different from approval of a building plan,” another official said.