This is an archive article published on February 11, 2021
25,000 illegal structures built in Covid period on PCMC radar
On why action against illegal constructions is not initiated when they come up, Makarand Nikam, joint city engineer, PCMC, said: “When our beat marshals notice illegal constructions, we serve notice to those who built them...”
Bhojne said a staff of 150, which includes civic officials and police officers, is demolishing the illegal structures. (Express photo: Rajesh Stephen)
THE PIMPRI-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), which started a demolition drive against illegal constructions on February 1, has as many as 25,000 structures on its radar. These constructions are spread across the industrial city.
As per an estimation, there could be around 50,000 illegal constructions that came up during the 10-month period of pandemic-induced closure. However, civic officials said the figure would be less than 50,000.
“I don’t think the number of illegal structures stands at 50,000. Though a survey says there are 50,000 structures, we estimate the figure to be lower than that,” a PCMC official said.
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Deputy Engineer Vijay Bhojne said, “We are not ruling out the possibility of around 25,000 illegal structures that came up during the 10-month period.”
On why action against illegal constructions is not initiated when they come up, Mankrand Nikam, joint city engineer, PCMC, said: “When our beat marshals notice illegal constructions, we serve notice to those who built them…”
Nikam added that each illegal construction is served the notice of demolition. “We give them sufficient time to demolish the structures. If they don’t do it, we then carry out the task,” he said.
Bhojne said a team of 150 workers, including civic officials and police officers, are carrying out the task of demolishing the illegal structures. “An assistant commissioner of police, five sub-inspectors and six assistant police inspectors remain present during the drive,” he added.
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Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said the drive started only after the Bombay High Court lifted the stay granted on January 31. “We could not undertake the drive due to pandemic-related restrictions. The drive has now started across the industrial city,” he added.
The drive, which started from Chikhli, has moved to Sangvi, a stronghold of BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap. Even Mayor Usha Dhore hails from Sangvi. Civic officials said Sangvi, Gurav Pimple and Bhosari are the suburubs with highest number of illegal structures due to political patronage.
Jagtap said: “The PCMC should demolish illegal structures as they put unnecessary strain on civic amenities. Illegal structures on narrow roads affect the smooth flow of traffic. These should be demolished on priority basis.”
Bhojne said till February 10, they have demolished 160 illegal structures and the drive will continue across the city.
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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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