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Urban Encroachment

Civic body gears up to intensify anti-encroachment drive across Aurangabad

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The Times of India       23.09.2014 

Civic body gears up to intensify anti-encroachment drive across Aurangabad

 

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which has been razing encroachments in the city for the past few days, is all set to intensify its action from Tuesday.

Shivaji Zanzan, in-charge of the anti-encroachment department in the AMC, said the civic body would take action against illegal occupants in the Beed Bypass area in the next two-three days. "It will be a major action against those occupying public utility lands for long. Similar aggressive drive will be carried out in other parts of the city very soon," he said while talking to TOI on Monday.

Zanazan also said market places, major roads and public places would be made free of encroachments.

On Saturday, the municipal body removed illegal occupants form Jadhavwadi, State Bank Colony and Connaught Place in the city. Zanzan said the eviction drive passed off smoothly. "There was slight resistance from the occupants but overall it was peaceful," he said.

In Jadhavwadi, the authorities demolished roadside shops and clear the road. "Local residents have been complaining about it for quite some time. Most of the structures were built on the encroached land," he said.

In the State Bank Colony area, the AMC staff removed temporary shops and those occupying public utility land. "A considerable portion of the road was encroached by the shopkeepers and vendors. The entire stretch was freed from the clutches of the vendors," Zanzan said.

In Connaught Place, the owner of one of the restaurants had expanded his set up illegally. The anti- encroachment staff demolished the expanded portion.

The civic body had demolished illegal extensions of restaurants and eateries in other parts of the city in the last three-four days. Residents had been complaining that the restaurants had made expansions and alterations.

 

PCMC razes just 1% of illegal buildings

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The Times of India        15.09.2014 

PCMC razes just 1% of illegal buildings

 

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), which has pulled down 680 of 66,000 unauthorized constructions in the past two years, is yet to receive government response on regularization of illegal buildings. The civic body had sent the proposal to the state government three years ago.

Municipal commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said that in the past six months 120 unauthorized buildings have been demolished. "The PCMC has demolished 680 unauthorized buildings since June 2012 when it began a large-scale drive against such constructions within the municipal limits. The corporation has lodged police complaints against 2,210 people for constructing unauthorized buildings," he said.

"We are still waiting for government response on regularization of illegal buildings in the area. We had sent the plea to the state government three years ago. Only after the response, will we be able to decide on future course of action," said Shirish Poredi, spokesperson of the PCMC, engineering department.

Last October, the high court, in response to a public interest litigation, had directed the municipal corporation to take action against all the unauthorized constructions as per the law. The municipal corporation, however, submitted an affidavit in the court saying that additional posts needed to be created for taking effective action against the unauthorized constructions.

In May, the high court had issued directions to the PCMC stating that it should take necessary steps to deal with the issue. The court also directed the civic body to create additional posts, following which the administration put a proposal before the general body. The proposal was approved by the general body last month. The government too immediately approved the proposal for creating 155 additional posts including two executive engineers, 19 sub-engineers, 62 junior engineers and 72 beat inspectors. The civic body would bear an annual expenditure of Rs 6.85 crore towards salaries of the new recruits.

The state, however, is yet to approve a proposal for setting up urban police stations and chowkies to take action against encroachments and unauthorized constructions. The proposal was mooted by the state government nearly three years ago.

In response to the proposal, the PCMC had decided to start an urban police station and four chowkies in the city. The corporation had also submitted a proposal to the state government for creating 106 posts required for the police station and chowkies. Jadhav said he will pursue the plan pending before the state. 

 

‘Clear encroachments on govt. land’

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The Hindu          10.09.2014

‘Clear encroachments on govt. land’

Demanding that the government act on clearing and taking ownership of encroached government lands, scores of citizens, led by freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and A.T. Ramaswamy, former MLA , staged a protest at Town Hall here on Monday.

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Ramaswamy, who headed the Joint Legislature Committee on encroachments on government land in Bangalore Urban district, said that over 20,000 acres of government land in the city had been encroached upon.

“The civic agencies are only looking at clearing visible encroachments. However, in many cases, false documents have been created and ownership of government lands changed. These encroachments are being overlooked,” he said.

He alleged that most encroachments were by politicians in connivance with bureaucrats and the land mafia. Mr. Ramaswamy also said that the Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill, 2007, which was approved by both the Assembly and Council, was still awaiting the President’s assent.

‘Lack of political will’

“The government is not following up on this. There is clearly lack of political will to enact the law,” he alleged. He pointed out that two months ago, Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra had assured that it would be enacted soon.

V. Balasubramanian, who headed the Task Force for Recovery of Government Land in the State, concurred with Mr. Ramaswamy. He said the government had kept his report, submitted in July 2011, in limbo and was yet to accept it.

 


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