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Illegal structures: 2015 to witness a concrete change

Two key decisions: Powers to the district collector to take action and regularisation of unauthorised structures

Illegal constructions, which have become the  bane of Pune, will in all probability meet their final fate in 2015 with the state government taking concrete steps to curb the growing menace decisively. Two key decisions that will take effect include powers to the district collector to take action against illegal constructions and regularisation of thousands of  unauthorised structures in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

For the fringe areas where illegal constructions come up brazenly, the state government has decided to amend the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MRTP) and the Gram Panchayat Act. This envisages decentralising power so that there is an authority at every level, who will be held responsible for such constructions.

The most important decision is that district collectors will be empowered to take action against illegal constructions. The collector was until now at the centre of the permission process, but had no mechanism or manpower to check and verify the plans and issue permissions.

As per the state cabinet’s decision, gram panchayats will be empowered to issue development permissions in villages. The district collector will be authorised to issue permissions for development outside the “gaothan” area.

The government has also decided to decentralise the development permission process by giving authority to tehsildars and also the gram panchayat, which will reduce the burden on district collectors. The state has also set a 60-day deadline for gram panchayats to give permissions, failing which builders can go ahead with their construction.

In Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune city, where the issue of illegal constructions has been raging for the past few years, the Sitaram Kunte Committee is expected to submit its report in the first week of January and in a month or so, the fate of illegal structures is likely to be decided. By all indications, the committee is set to recommend regularisation of thousands of illegal constructions. Pimpri-Chinchwad has around 1.5 lakh registered illegal constructions. “The chief minister has indicated that maximum illegal constructions will be regularised in Pimpri-Chinchwad. By February or March, the issue will be resolved conclusively,” said MLA Laxman Jagtap.
The committee’s recommendations will also be applicable to the PMC area where the menace of illegal constructions, especially in developing areas, has persisted.

A member, however, said the committee would recommend regularisation of structures where additional floors had been added or structures extended, but those on land reserved for gardens, grounds and other amenities were not likely to be spared.

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Jagtap said after the government took a final decision, the onus would be on respective civic bodies to ensure that no further illegal constructions took place in their jurisdiction. Civic officials said if officers were negligent towards illegal constructions, they would face a three-year jail term.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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