Illegal structures crop up in tony suburbs as civic body shuts eye.
At least 100 illegal stalls have sprung up at various locations in the western suburbs — Bandra, Khar and Santa Cruz. And, despite complaints to the local municipal ward office, no action has been taken, says a local civic activist.
The brand new stalls, which are still to be inaugurated, have come over the past few days. A majority of the stalls are lined up on SV Road, Linking Road. Some of them are in Daulat Nagar in Santa Cruz, on Guru Nanak Road near Santa Cruz station and on Ambedkar Road near Pali Hill. The civic H-west ward has jurisdiction over these pockets.
Bandra-based civic activist, Hashim Shaikh, said that the civic authorities are reluctant to take action due to political pressure or some other influence. “We’ve been approaching the local ward office to take action in the matter but our request has fallen on deaf ears... Civic officials have not taken any action against any of these stalls,” said Shaikh.
Shaikh, who claimed that some of the stalls have sprung up about a month ago, said that the authorities were not taking action despite having approached them with evidence.
About a month ago, municipal authorities had prepared a investigation report of illegal structures in the city. Subsequently, they had issued notices to licensed stalls. However, sources said that neither is there any record of illegal stalls nor has action been taken to remove them. These notices, said the sources, pertain only to illegal extensions, change of users or renewal of licences .
Between 2011 and 2012, owners of 65 allegedly illegal stalls in the H-west ward continued with their business by forging documents and seeking a court stay.
Aftab Siddique, civic activist and president of 33rd Road Khar advanced locality management, said that most of the illegal stalls are situated in prime locations from where the vehicles of senior civic officials and those from the encroachment removal department pass. “But they conveniently choose to ignore the illegal stalls,” Siddique claimed.
Siddique said that senior officials of the civic ward — assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner — had promised to look into the matter but no action was taken.
Last year, seven municipal officials had been indicted after the issue of illegal stalls was raked by civic activists and residents of H-west ward.
While two officials were suspended, inquiry against five is underway. “Against this background, senior municipal officials do not want another issue to come to light,” said an official from the H - west ward.
Assistant municipal commissioner Prashant Sapkale was not available at his ward office to offer his side of the story. Neither was Anand Wagralkar, deputy municipal commissioner (removal of encroachments), who takes action against illegal hawkers, available for comment.
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