Politicians, activists differ on number of illegal structures set up by builders

The PCMC administration denied that the government’s move is aimed at favouring builders.

illegal structures, pune illegal structures, PCMC, MNS, Raj Thackeray, pune news

PMC

WHILE MNS chief Raj Thackeray and former chief minister Prith-viraj Chavan have criticised the state government’s decision to regularise illegal constructions calling it a move in the interest of builders, the PCMC too seems to be in denial vis-a-vis builders benefitting from the move.

The PCMC administration denied that the government’s move is aimed at favouring builders. Officials said only two per cent of the 66,000 illegal structures belong to builders, but quickly withdrew the statement. Municipal Commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said he would only speak after getting details about the decision.

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In fact, the PCMC does not even have the figures of reserved land grabbed by builders to set up residential or commercial buildings. PCMC has demolished nearly 1,500 structures in the last four years. But officials said they do not have the break-up of structures belonging to builders and citizens flattened by them. PCMC city engineer Mahavir Kamble said the figure is being collated.

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While the PCMC administration believes that only two per cent of the illegal constructions belonged to builders, BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap said at least 20 per cent of the illegal constructions were set up by builders. “Most of the 66,000 illegal structures were constructed by the common man. In fact, the figure of 66,000 submitted before the high courted related to the year 2011. The actual figure is two lakh. I don’t know why the PCMC is not putting out the actual figure,” Jagtap said, adding that Sangvi, New Sangvi and Pimpri Gurav have 40,000 illegal structures set up residents.

Concuring with this view, another BJP leader Eknath Pawar, former president of the BJP unit, said the figure of illegal structures carried out by the common was staggering. “It would be wrong to hold builders entirely responsible. Yes, builders have indulged in setting up illegal structures, but the figure is not as high as it is being made out to be.”

Pawar said villages which merged with PCMC in 1997 have the highest number of illegal strutuctures. “Places like Charholi or Dighi have large number of illegal structures. You will hardly find any regularised structures in these areas,” he said.

Maruti Bhapkar of the Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj Abhiyan too said there could be 5 to 10 per cent illegal structures of builders. “But we want action against builders who set up illegal floors and sold them to residents. In such cases, the residents should not be fined. The builders should be fined heavily, police cases filed against them and they should be blacklisted,” Bhapkar said.

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Civil activists have a different take on the whole issue. “It is difficult to believe that builders have set up the least number of illegal structures in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The way areas of Pimple Gurav, Pimple Saudagar, Wakad, Rahatni and Thergaon have transformed with amazing speed, you can sense something fishy here. There needs to be a thorough probe,” said activist Shridhar Chalkha.

Bhapkar said builders closely associated with politicians had a free run in Pimpri-Chinchwad. “If we look at the building projects that have come up in quick time, it shows how builders have been the favourites of PCMC. Why and how, it needs to be found out in the larger interest,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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