Staff allocated areas to keep a tab on encroachers, submit report to ward officer every week Sayli Udas-Mankikar
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will hold its officials accountable for every new illegal structure that comes up in the city. The corporations Anti-Encroachment Department has allocated areas to its officials, asking them to keep a tab on squatters on a daily basis. This, BMC says, will help fix responsibility for any fresh encroachments in the city.
According to the certification system introduced a month ago, junior engineers and other officers will have to prepare a daily report of encroachment status in the areas cleared of such structures.
Among other areas, the corporation is cracking down on encroachments at P Dmello Road, Senapati Bapat Marg, Fashion Street, Cuffe Parade and Mankhurd. The BMC now wants to ensure that squatters dont return once the drive is over.
We have asked a junior engineer or an officer to look after each road in a ward. The official concerned will keep a check on encroachments on a daily basis and then submit a reportcalled a certificateto the ward officer concerned every week. The ward officer will, in turn, submit a report to Additional Municipal Commissioner (AMC) R A Rajeev after every four weeks, said V N Kalampatil, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC), Encroachment Removal.
This will help fix responsibility, said Rajeev. We will have an exact inventory of the number of encroachments in a particular area. Besides, we will also have details of the structures scheduled for demolition, the number of encroachment-related cases in courts and the list of areas needing rehabilitation, Rajeev said. If a new structure comes up, it will immediately find itself in the demolition register, he said.
According to Kalampatil, the new system has not only increased accountability in the department, but it also serves as a deterrent to residents of shanties. They are scared to putting up new structures realising that the corporation will immediately come to know of it, he said.
The certificate system was implemented just a month ago and 10 ward officers have already submitted their reports, Kalampatil said, adding, The new system will ensure 100 per cent vigil in three months.