Journalism of Courage
The state government has announced that municipal commissioners and CEOs of Zilla Parishads and municipal councils would be held responsible for illegal constructions coming up in their jurisdictions.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Prithivraj Chavan during the Assembly session on Tuesday.
On Tuesday,when Newsline sought their comments about what action they proposed to take against officials who had turned a blind eye to illegal constructions,both PMC and PCMC commissioners had said they were not going into the past,but were looking at the future. Even PCNTDA CEO Yogesh Mhase said he had not thought about taking action against negligent officials.
Not only officials,even their heads will be held responsible…this is a good development. Now,we can relax as civic officials will have to be on guard, said activist Shridhar Chalkha. When contacted,PCMC chief Dr Shrikar Pardeshi said he had read about the Chief Ministers announcement in the newspaper,but would wait to receive the government order before making any comment. PMC chief too refused to comment.
However,the BJP has described chief ministers announcement as an eyewash. BJP city president Vikas Mathkari said five years ago it was announced that police inspectors and ward officials would be responsible for any illegal structures under their limits.
However,in all these years not one official or police inspector has been suspended, he said,adding that the Chief Ministers words do not carry weight.
