The Indian Express 21.04.2013
BMC starts razing illegal floors at engg college
BMC Satruday started demolition of two illegal floors of Vasantdada Patil Engineering College at Sion-Chunabhatti.
The college has been built on collector’s land. However, it did
not have permissions to build the fifth and the sixth floor of the
college. BMC had issued several notices to the college asking it to
demolish the illegal structures or get them regularised. The college had
then appealed to the collector and BMC to regularise the two floors,
following which it was asked to pay a fine of Rs 18 crore. The college,
however, refused to do so and moved court against the authorities. The
court ruled against it and directed it to pay the fine or demolish the
floors.
CAG had in 2012 mentioned in its report that the floors were
illegal. It had recommended that the college pay a premium to the state
government. The state government, however, failed to collect the
premium.
A senior BMC official said, “The college does not have required
construction certificate to build the fifth and sixth floors. We had
sent them several notices and they could have taken necessary steps to
regularise the floors but they failed to do so.”
On Saturday, BMC initiated demolition of four rooms. This will
affect about 1,200 engineering students who will soon be appearing for
exams and about 300 diploma students whose exams are currently going on.
“We have begun the process already and will complete it
irrespective of the exams. We had given prior information to the college
about the demolition,” added the BMC official.
The college has been embroiled in several controversies,
including discrimination and malpractices. Allegations of the college
flouting AICTE and Directorate of Technical Education norms have been
levelled against the college and the management. College officials
meanwhile were not available for comment and did not respond to calls.