Time and again the Bombay High Court has rapped the civic body for the methods it adopts in dealing with the ever-increasing illegal constructions and extensions. The court has repeatedly told the corporation to use modern technology to ensure proper monitoring of the ongoing development in city, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) doesn't seem to have paid heed or taken any appropriate action to tackle the menace.

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The HC had even said that the best way to monitor and prevent illegal construction is by making the existing unauthorised structures public. "It will be easier for people to check their neighourhood if they have easy access to a list of illegal structures," a judge had remarked.

Recently, justice Naresh Patil, while hearing a petition seeking preservation of gaothans and stopping illegal construction, had asked BMC, "Do you have a master print of the city, which structure is legal and standing since when?" Scrambling for a reply, the corporation had said it has ward-wise information and, if the court wants, data can be compiled and submitted.

Advocate Jamshed Mistry, who has argued several cases of illegal construction and was also on the fact-finding committee seeking shifting of the Kala Ghoda festival, said "The corporation needs to rework its plans to stop illegal construction. Mere serving of notices and then considering regularisation applications, kept pending for years, is no solution to tackle this."

And it's not just unauthorised construction that's on BMC's plate, even hawkers and their illegal extensions go unchecked. As per BMC's own admission before the HC recently, there are 16,000 authorised and 71,000 unauthorised vendors in the city.

The issue of illegal structures, however, is not new. The HC has been hearing public interest litigations against it since the 1990s.

In a writ petition filed by Relief Road Housing Societies Association in 1999, the government had filed an affidavit dated March 13, 2000, saying it won't extend the cut-off date of January 1, 1995, in the issue of regularisation of slums. It also said it will take necessary steps to remove encroachers who have come into existence after January 1, 1995, as expeditiously as possible.

On May 18, 2001, an ordinance was issued mentioning that slums which came up after January 1, 1995, shall be demolished and such encroachment considered a cognisable offence. The ordinance was converted into the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Second Amendment Act, 2001, on January 5, 2002.

"However, even after all these years, the authorities are yet to take action against the structures which have come up post 1995, or even post 2000," said social activist Bhagvanji Raiyani.

The HC had in 2013 directed setting up of special courts and special police to deal with the menace in Thane district. The direction was given while hearing yet another PIL filed by NGO Harit Vasai Sanrakshan Samiti, seeking action against illegal structures and alleging that there were over 5 lakh such unauthorised structures in the Vasai-Virar belt.