Act against illegal constructions: Mumbai civic chief to wards……..Pandurang Mhaske
The civic commissioner has decided to act against illegal constructions and mushrooming of slums across the city.
On Friday the commissioner issued a circular to all ward offices that said that only notices would not suffice and action should be against the persons involved in the illegal construction activities.To keep the civic administration transparent, the commissioner instructed the ward officers to send reports of action taken to the commissioner’s office.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has the power to contain the illegal the construction but the civic body only issues notices. These notices seldom work, as the owner of the illegal construction usually approaches the court and stays the order with the illegal construction remaining as it is. “These activities put extra burden on the infrastructure and the civic body is unable to tolerate it,” said a senior civic official.
The order clearly says that action should be taken against such illegal structures and that any structures should not come up in the city without obtaining proper permission from the civic body.
BMC’s control rooms also have to follow up complaints of illegal constructions and send a report of the same.
“The slums are mushrooming. At some places there are multi-story slums that are against the development planand breaches the development control rule,” said senior civic official.Commissioner Subodh Kumar confirmed that he has issued the circular, but refused to comment further.
Ashish Shelar BJP group leader in the BMC welcomed the commissioner’s circular. “There is need of such control on the illegal distorted development of,” said Shelar. Rajhans Singh, opposition leader in the BMC said, “While acting against the slums the civic body should also act against the big builders,” he said.