Applicable for houses below 300 square metres The Cabinet on Wednesday formulated an Ordinance to amend the Kerala Municipality Act and the Panchayat Raj Act, to introduce a self-certification system for construction of houses below 300 square metre of area. As per the amendment, the owner can get an empanelled engineer or architect to certify that the construction of the house below 300 square metre of area will be carried out within the stipulated rules. Once this self-certification and plan is submitted to the local body, the local body secretary has to provide an acknowledgement within five days, which can be considered as the building permit to begin the construction work.