BMC makes police verify bldg proposals
Once bitten twice shy. After four civic officials were arrested in
the Sara-Sahara shopping complex case, all building proposals for
redevelopment and major repairs from three wards in particular are being
sent to the crime branch for verification.
Civic officials say this is being done for the last two years. All
proposals for buildings around the Jyotiba Mahatma Phule market (Crawford
Market) in A ward, all over B ward (J J Hospital) and C ward (areas around
Mohammed Ali Road)-where the underworld still reportedly calls the shots-are
sent for verification to the police.
In the Sara-Sahara case, four officials including A-ward officer Kiran
Achrekar are languishing in jail after they were accused of conniving with
the underworld to usurp government land. The officials were arrested under
the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). While the illegal
shopping complexes were demolished, the structure has been declared as legal
by the BMC and continues to stand. But there has been no respite for these
officials. “We are only taking precautions so that in case some problem
crops up in future, we are not in trouble. In the Sara-Sahara case too, the
arrests happened almost three years after the permissions were granted,”
said an official.
Recently the building proposal had sent three cases for verification,
and all of them had been cleared by the police, he said. “So far they haven’t
raised objection in any of the cases,” he added.
Civic officials pointed out that in case of the island city, most
proposals for building projects were for redevelopment of old and
dilapidated buildings but these too had now stopped following a Bombay high
court stay order.
“Only those cases which are found to be admissible as per the court
rulings are being processed and these are quite old. Ever since the state
government announced its new housing policy in November there have been
directions not to clear any new slum rehabilitation projects and no new
proposals have been received for the redevelopment of civic tenanted
properties either,” said officials.