Demolition campaigns will continue after Ganeshotsav

The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA), which have suspended their ongoing demolition drives against illegal constructions, will resume the action after the Ganesh festival.

PCMC commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi left on a 50-day tour of the United States on Wednesday. However, the demolition drive in the city will continue in his absence. Pardeshi said, “Since the monsoon is over, the action against illegal constructions as well as work on development projects will resume. I will be monitoring the work, keeping in touch with the civic staff through the Internet.”
Pardeshi added that major policy decision will not be hampered by his absence. Additional municipal commissioner Prakash Kadam will hold charge of his office.

Before leaving, Pardeshi has assigned work to each department and has also issued them deadlines for completing it. The PCMC and PCNTDA stopped their anti-encroachment drives three weeks ago due to lack of police protection as the force is busy with security measures during the Ganesh festival.

PCNTDA’s spokesperson confirmed that the authority’s anti-encroachment drive will resume in the first week of October.
The PCNTDA has planned a massive demolition action against encroachments on 7.5 acres in Bhosari-Pradhikaran as well as 400 small and residential unauthorised constructions in the twin township.

The PCNTDA will continue to demolish encroachments in Wakad, Thergaon and Rahatani areas simultaneously. Recently, the PCNTDA had announced a housing project on the land cleared through the demolition drive. It has cleared nearly 20 acres of land by razing illegal structures. PCNTDA’s chief executive officer Dr Yogesh Mhase said the PCNTDA will utilise the cleared land for housing projects in the future too.

Owners of 17,000 illegal buildings get notices

After the state government issued a notification allowing the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to regularise unauthorised constructions after imposing regularisation charges equal to the amount of property tax, the PCMC has started issuing notices to the property owners asking them to pay the charges. The civic administration has so far issued such notices to nearly 17,000 constructions.

Assistant commissioner of property tax department Shahaji Pawar said, “The civic administration issued notices to 17,000 properties. As per the government notification, illegal structures that came up after 2008 will have to pay double property tax to get themselves regularised.”

The PCMC identified nearly 36,000 illegal structures that came up after the year 2008. PCMC commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi has ordered the civic staff to complete issuing the notices before October.

Cutting across party lines, corporators strongly opposed the move to demolish illegal constructions. They had demanded that the structures be regularised after charging penalty. As per the state government notification, owners of unauthorised constructions that have come up after 2008 have to pay penalty equivalent to the property tax of the structure.

90 illegal structures razed
The PCMC demolished 90 unauthorised constructions that had come up on the riverbed and public reservations in the last two months. As per the state government order, the PCMC started demolishing unauthorised structures that came up after March 2012. There are nearly 1,000 such structures identified. The PCMC filed 200 first information reports against the owners in one month, the process was going on. The PCMC published all the details on its website.