Court sets March 31, 2012, as deadline to raze illegal structures.
The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday granted an eight-month extension to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for demolition of 1.5 lakh illegal constructions in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area.
As per the new HC deadline, the demolitions should be completed by March 31, 2012.
Political parties heaved a sigh of relief following the extension granted by the court. With municipal polls slated early next year, it would have become a major problem for them to woo the electorate had the civic body demolished the illegal constructions.
Initially the court had fixed February 3, 2011, as the deadline for completing the task, and later extended it for six months, till August 6, 2011.
However, the PCMC approached the court last week appealing for another extension, stating that since the number of illegal structures is large, it would be impossible to meet the August 6 deadline.
The civic officials could not even complete the process of issuing notices to the owners of illegal structures.
Confirming the HC decision, the head of the PCMC legal department, Ajay Suryavanshi, said the case was heard by chief justice Mohit Shah, and the civic body was represented by advocate JH Keluskar.
Of the nearly 1.5 lakh unauthorised constructions within the PCMC limits, nearly 26,000 have come up on the reserved land of civic body. The civic administration has so far issued 30,777 notices to the owners of illegal constructions.
A corporator from the ruling Nationalistic Congress Party (NCP) said, “The court’s decision will benefit the party in the municipal elections. In fact, we are making efforts to regularise these constructions.”
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