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.