Anti-encroachment drive at Kudalwadi-Chikhali area: Tales of tears as PCMC razes 4,000 illegal structures

“We had 400 people working in our industrial unit. Our entire unit has been demolished. All of us have lost our jobs. We have nowhere to go,” said Samayan Shaikh, a welder.

The helplessness was writ large on their faces as they narrated their nightmare. Some lost their scrap godowns while others lost their industrial units which they had built over the last 20-30 years.

“We had a turnover of Rs 2.5 crore. We used to pay property tax, light bill, we have GST certificate, we provided jobs to 20-25 persons…Still our two units have been flattened,” Vithal Shinde and Avinash Waghmare, who jointly owned two industrial units, said.

Sitting amid debris, everyone had the same story to tell as to how their lives came crashing in no time.

According to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the anti-encroachment drive was carried out on 827-acre of land, including civic and private.

The administration said all of them were either scrap godowns or industrial units and none of them was a residential one. Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh said the action came following a Bombay High Court order.

“The action has been taken following a Bombay high court ruling, dismissing the petition filed by the owners of the illegal structures…. They could not provide a single document proving the legality of their structures. The high court had in its February 4 order given clear cut directions that the municipal corporation should use force and undertake demolitions,” Singh told The Indian Express.

“We had served proper notice and given 40-45 days to the owners to remove the illegal structures. When there was no response, we went ahead demolishing the structures,” he added.

However, several industrialists and civic activists, slammed the PCMC administration for being “insensitive, inhuman and callous” in its approach, with many industrialists, claiming that the demolition led to loss Rs 7,600 crore and loss of jobs of nearly 2.5 lakh workers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The staggering number of 4,100 is believed to be one of the highest figures in the history of civic body.

The demolished stuctures, the PCMC commissioner said, came up without the requisite building permission from the civic body, without consent of the Maharahstra Pollution Control Board.

“The structures and sheds had come up in a residential zone. They were being run without MPCB’s consent to operate, consent to establish norms, in violation of environment norms, labour laws and violaion of fire norms… Not a single one had taken permission from the civic body,” the PCMC commissioner said.

Singh said after they were served a notice for removal of the illegal structures, the owners had approached the Bombay high court.

“On February 4, the high court rejected 29 petitions of the owners of the illegal structures. On February 13, the high court against rejected 52 petitions. After this, Supreme Court also rejected their petitions,” the civic chief said.

While the owners of the structures argued that they had been paying taxes to the civic body, Singh said, “The Supreme Court has in a ruling in December 2024 clearly stated that it does not matter how old the structure is or whether the owners are paying the taxes…an illegal structure is a illegal structure.”

The civic administration denied that they had taken the action under any political pressure or due to Bangladeshi nationals living in Kudalwadi and nearby areas as alleged by Bhosari MLA Mahesh Landge in the state Assembly last year.

“There has been no political pressure. Neither the action is related to any illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in the area. We were forced to act following at least four major fire incidents which led to loss of several lives in these illegal units. Besides, the Supreme Court, in one of its ruling, had taken taken a strict stand against encroachers and the process that needs to be followed. We followed the appropriate procedure…Our decision to demolish the structures was based on the pollution, especially, the river pollution caused by these illegal units,” he said.

Slamming the PCMC action, Sandeep Belsare, president of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Small Scale Industries Association, said, “The PCMC action has been completely inhuman and insensitive. The civic administration did not give sufficient time to the owner of the scrap godowns and small, medium and micro industrial units to shift their units elsewhere. It takes at least two months to shift the entire machinery from one place to another. The PCMC demolished the structures in a short period of time.”

Stating that the total loss due to the demolitions was to the tune of Rs 7,600 crore, Belsare said there were around 5,000 scrap godowns, small, medium and micro units in Chikhali, Kudalwadi, Jadhavwadi and Pawarvasti areas.

“At least 2.5 lakh workers have now lost their jobs. Many of them were working on meagre salaries. A majority of them had come from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal,” he said.

“When PCMC was making money by collecting taxes from these units and building bridges, flyovers and other amenities, how can they even imagine wrecking the lives of people who contribute significantly for the development of the city ?,” asked Belsare.

Civic activist Maruti Bhapkar alleged conspiracy behind the PCMC action. “All this is being done at the behest of some builders and some politicians. The land which has been freed from encroachments will have been handed over to some builders from whom officials and politicians will make money,” he alleged.

Environmental activist Prashant Raul said PCMC action was completely illogical and callous.

“Instead of finding a solution to the environment problem being created by the scrap godowns, PCMC could have easily created a scrap park or a scrap zone and shifted them to these place… These scrap godowns played a significant role in collecting the hazardous waste generated by industrial units from across the city,” he said.