PUNE: A three-member committee will survey illegal constructions on the
fringes of Pune and other civic bodies and the state government will
announce an action plan once the committee submits its report by August
15.

MLAs representing the city and the district had raised the
issue of rampant illegal constructions in the fringes bordering the
city, recently. Speaker Dilip Walse Patil had asked the state government
to form a committee. Accordingly, the state government on Wednesday
announced a panel comprising principal secretaries of the urban
development, revenue and rural development departments.

Shirur
MLA Ashok Pawar, who had started a debate in the state assembly earlier
this week, said, “The state government has promised concrete solutions
to curb illegal constructions in the villages surrounding Pune city.
Along with Pune, the committee will conduct a detailed survey of illegal
constructions in the gram panchayat areas surrounding Nashik, Thane,
Aurangabad and Nagpur municipal corporations.”

Revenue minister
Balasaheb Thorat had admitted that illegal constructions around cities
like Pune are a threat to planned development as these areas are slated
for merger with the civic limits. Following Wednesday’s meeting,
district collector Vikas Deshmukh, who was also present, stated that the
district administration would cooperate with the state committee, which
is likely to visit the city next week.

“The city’s population
of about 33 lakh and Pimpri Chinchwad’s 17 lakh, has increased the need
for housing. It is high time that city has an integrated development
plan, which will check the growth of slums and illegal constructions in
the areas surrounding the city. The district collector must strictly
implement the Development Control (DC) rules in a 10-km radius of Pune
and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations to stem the chaos,” former
state urban planner Ramchandra Gohad told TOI.

The scramble for
affordable homes has led to rampant illegal constructions in the
villages bordering the city where building plans are sanctioned by the
gram panchayat. Town planners said that there is blatant violation of
the 0.4 Floor Space Index (FSI) in the fringe and merged villages. In
many cases, the panchayats have sanctioned an FSI of 8. Such violations
were found in a 20 to 25-km radius from the PMC limits.

The
state governments move to appoint a committee comes against the backdrop
of deputy chief minster Ajit Pawar directing the town planning
department to revise the regional plan (RP) for the Pune Metropolitan
Region (PMR), by next year.

Pawar recently said that the state
was concerned about the haphazard growth in Pune region in the past
decade. The existing regional plan was drafted in 1990. However, the
ground situation has changed drastically. It is not able to cope with
the rapid pace of changes in the region. Hence, the town planning
department should start collecting inclusive data and prepare a new
regional plan, Pawar directed.

Town planners and experts insist
that any changes in the regional plan and its effective implementation
would depend on PMRDA, which must go functional first so that the
regional plan can be implemented. Pawar did not say a word about the
PMRDA going operational. The PMR, spread over 1,340 sq km in Haveli
taluka, was defined in 1967 and comprises Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the
three cantonments of Pune, Khadki and Dehu Road, and close to 100 other
census towns and villages.

Unhappy politicians from the city and
urban planners have questioned the committee’s motive and sought the
immediate functioning of the Pune Metropolitan Development Authority (PMRDA) to curb illegal constructions and pave the way for integrated development of the region.

BJP city unit chief and corporator Vikas Mathkari said, “Announcing a
committee will not curb the illegal constructions. The state government
is already aware of the number of illegal constructions. The state needs
to act against them. The proposal for the merger of surrounding
villages in pending with the PMC’s city improvement committee and
meanwhile massive construction is coming up in these villages. It would
be difficult for the civic body to provide basic infrastructure to
people in these villages when they merge with the city limits.”

Congress corporator Aba Bagul said that the only solution to curb
illegal constructions in the fringes is to functionalise PMRDA. “The
district collector and the civic body have their limitations in carrying
out anti encroachment drives in the surrounding villages. Once PMRDA is
in place, this issue could be resolved,” he added.

In April,
chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said a final decision on PMRDA
would be taken within three months on the basis of recommendations of a
study group. According to government officials, one of the reasons for
delay is the difference between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the leadership of PMRDA.

While the Congress camp wants Chavan, who heads the MMRDA, to hold the
chairmanship of PMRDA, the NCP camp is pushing Pawar’s name for the
post.

Times View

The indiscriminate
construction activity on the fringes of Pune and other cities should be
checked before it gets out-of-hand. Once the state government-appointed
panel submits its report on illegal constructions on the outskirts of
growing cities, there must be some active deterrent. Planned development
will be near-impossible if the merger process of 25 villages with the Pune Municipal Corporation
is delayed any further. Till then, the collectorate must be given
adequate manpower, police protection and the machinery to act against
illegal structures.