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.