Committee is there,but no commitment

HC appointed the committee as it heard a PIL by Harit Vasai Sanrakshan Samiti (HVSS). The court expanded the scope of the PIL seeking removal of illegal structures in Vasai-Virar to include the entire Thane district.

HVSS lawyer Uday Warunjikar told HC in June 2010 that of the 4,95,483 unauthorised structures in the district,only 11,545 had been demolished. There has been no update.

Warunjikar said the committee report was awaited and the case was likely to be heard next week.

Chief secretary Jayant Banthia told The Indian Express the committee was functional and had held several meetings.

Warunjikar had told HC the government had promised steps such as setting up a civic police force in municipal corporations and special police stations and courts to deal with the menace of encroachments and illegal constructions,but there was no initiative.

“Municipal corporations were told the government was willing to post police officers but they should pay for it. Police are always busy. If corporations need them,they should pay. Corporations have yet to adopt resolutions to pay for police deployment,” Banthia said.

He said some people claimed to be staying in alleged illegal constructions since before the cut-off date of 1995. Their appeals are pending before the forest department and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).

“We had told the department forest land needed to be protected. MIDC too would find a way. Removing (unauthorised constructions) is difficult but not impossible,” Banthia said.

The government had asked deputy collectors to settle claims of encroachers,he said.

An affidavit filed in HC in June 2010 by then chief secretary J P Dange said the government proposed a cut-off date for regularisation of unauthorised constructions. It said the government was also coming up with a legal provision to prosecute officers in whose wards unauthorised constructions were found.

HC asked Thane Municipal Corporation in 2010 to take erring officers to task.

“Fix responsibility and dismiss them. Dismissal is the only punishment in such cases,” it said.

TMC then told HC it had initiated a departmental inquiry against 28 officers.

Curated For You

Ex-Punjab IPS officer IG Amar Singh Chahal shoots himself after being duped in Rs 8.10 crore cyber fraud

​Goa Zilla Panchayat Election Results 2025 LIVE Updates: BJP-MGP alliance wins 30 seats; CM Pramod Sawant thanks state, party karyakartas

Dhurandhar Box Office Collection Worldwide Day 18 Update: Ranveer Singh film to storm into Rs 900 cr club today; is 2025’s biggest hit worldwide