Urban News

The Deccan Chronicle  12.08.2010

Aug. 11: Vasantnagar corporator Katta Jagadish Naidu has launched a fight with the help of the BBMP legal section against some people who have allegedly encroached on property worth Rs 250 crore in his ward.

While BBMP struggles to get back property under litigation, 4.33 acres of prime property, near the KPCC office at Millers’ Tank bed road, perpendicular to Queens Road, has been encroached upon by Mr Ramaiah and a Congress leader causing huge loss, he alleged. “Land measuring 3.29 acres on survey number 18 in Bilakkahalli village (Millers Tank bed) has been allegedly encroached upon by Mr Ramaiah. The BBMP’s struggle to get it back has been unsuccessful due to political pressure. Another 1.04 acres of land on survey number 16 has also been allegedly encroached upon,” he added.

According to documents available with Deccan Chronicle, Shantinagar MLA N.A. Harris had allegedly secured 12,500 sq. feet of land at survey number 324 registered in favour of Nalpad estates and projects.

Meanwhile, according to the letter written by the then principal secretary of urban development department, K. Jothiramalingam in 2009 to the then BBMP commissioner Bharat Lal Meena, it was stated that properties bearing number 319/1, 320 to 324 and 327 were BBMP properties. He had also demanded action against officials who had issued the khatas in an illegal manner.

Since the property registered in the name of Mr Harris falls under BBMP jurisdiction, questions have been raised on whether the property was actually purchased by Mr Harris. When Mr Harris sought a power connection for his property (number 324), the Bescom had written a letter to the BBMP to ascertain if the property was encroached upon and whether the power connection could be given.

The Bescom had sought this clarification as some properties on Millers Tank Bund Road were under litigation and some were BBMP properties.Earlier, city incharge and BWSSB minister Katta Subramanya Naidu had written a letter to the Chief Minister stating that about 18 acres of government land has been encroached upon by land sharks in collusion with BBMP authorities.

Hindustan Times 12.08.2010

Struggling to get a grip on the increasing number of malaria cases in the city, a desperate Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday ordered 29 construction sites not adhering to its malaria control norms to stop work. The norms include conducting fumigation, testing migrant workers for malaria and not permitting mosquitoes to breed by allowing water to accumulate on the site.

In all, 33 sites have been served stop-work notices. Of these, 20 sites are in the eastern suburbs and 13 in the western suburbs.

"We have issued stop-work notices to some developers as they have not followed the norms despite repeated instructions," confirmed P.R. Masurkar, ward officer of the R-north ward — Borivli.

The BMC has also sent warning notices to 635 sites across the city for not following larvae-control norms to fight the spread of the disease.

The notices have been sent after the civic body’s three special squads inspected the three zones: the island city, the eastern and the western suburbs.

Each squad includes officials from the health and building proposals departments and an officer from the concerned locality (ward office).

"They inspect the sites and if it’s found that a site is not following the norms, they have the authority to issue warning notices to the concerned developer," said an official from the health department, on the condition of anonymity.

In the past few days, the teams have inspected 939 sites and issued warning notices to 635 sites, of which highest number of violators, 296, are from the western suburbs, 252 from the island city and 87 are from the eastern suburbs.

The state government and the municipal corporation are battling to fight malaria, which as per the latest civic data, has seen a 55 per cent rise in the city between April and June as compared to the same period last year.