The issue of unauthorised constructions in the satellite township of Ulhasnagar has come back to haunt the state government.
The issue of unauthorised constructions in the satellite township of Ulhasnagar has come back to haunt the state government. The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the government and the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) to explain what action they proposed to take against over 1.13 lakh unauthorised buildings that are yet to apply for regularisation.
In order to provide relief to residents of Ulhasnagar, the government had enacted a special law in January last year to protect unauthorised constructions carried out before January 2005. They had asked building occupants to apply for regularisation. However, of the 1.40 lakh unauthorised constructions, 1,13,767 buildings/tenements are yet to apply for regularisation, despite the expiry of a deadline.
Justice JN Patel said the state government and the UMC are too busy blaming each other to take any real action.“”Time is only being spent in conducting meetings without any real results”” he said. Dismissing the affidavits filed by UMC as“”eyewash””, Justice Patel said,“”If the government is satisfied of the incapacity of the UMC, nothing stops them from taking over the administration of the corporation, rather than expressing their helplessness.”
Hearing a public interest litigation filed by Hari Tanwani, a resident of Ulhasnagar, a division bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice Amjad Sayed asked the state and the UMC to respond to allegations of failure to take action against illegal buildings that have come up after January 2000, despite court orders.
In its affidavit, the UMC had claimed that it had demolished 942 structures in the past two years. Tanwani, however, disputed this assertion and pointed out that neither had the UMC given details of the structures demolished nor had panchnamas or first information reports been filed by the police, as is mandatory in such cases.
The petitioner brought to the court’s notice that of the 131 building plans approved in the past two years, 87 did not possess a plinth certificate while 103 were not issued completion/occupation certificates. The court has also asked the UMC to submit details of the action taken against civic officials who were held responsible for unauthorised buildings by the Nandlal committee.
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