44 illegal pandals allowed by ward officers: BMC tells Bombay HC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told the Bombay High Court Wednesday that its ward officers illegally allowed 44 pandals to come up during the ongoing Ganesh festival despite the court's orders.

In an affidavit, BMC counsel Anil Sakhre said the civic body would be issuing show-cause notices to these officers, and necessary action would be taken against them.

The counsel told a bench of justices A S Oka and M S Sonak that teams of ward officers and officers from the state government's revenue department had inspected all 863 pandals in the island city of Mumbai and the suburbs.

Thirty-two of these pandals were found to be illegal and subsequently demolished by the BMC, he said.

However, another round of inspection revealed that ward officers later illegally permitted another 44 pandals, Sakhre added.

"The BMC has taken a serious note of the illegality....officers concerned will be issued show-cause notices," he said.

The BMC had directed all ward officers earlier to follow the court's orders to not allow illegal pandals and ensure that there was no violation of noise pollution norms during the festival, the lawyer said.

The bench was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations seeking strict implementation of the noise pollution rules and action against illegal pandals during festivals.