BMC targets 22,000 illegal structures in a month

During the monsoon, the state government usually stays the demolition of illegal residential structures on humanitarian grounds though there is no provision for this in the BMC Act. Hence, ward officer in charge of encroachments, S S Shinde, says if the squad fails to hit the 22,000-mark, these structures would continue to be razed during the monsoon if the government does not specifically place these on hold. “There is a temporary stay on residential structures only and hence the squad targets commercial and new illegal structures which come up during the monsoon,” Shinde said. He said the BMC will attack unauthorised constructions with a vengeance according to the October 1998 list, which includes details on the number of structures on land belonging to different owners, such as the collector, the state government and others.

Since October, only 10,000 structures have been razed mainly because the ward offices have been concentrating on cronic spots. In all, 537 spots have been identified and the squad has also managed to prevent encroachments from springing on 287 sites. In the last seven months, demolitions were undertaken on three occasions at 64 locations, twice at 61 sites and just once at 410 sites. But with little time left, the squad plans to carry out demolitions at all the spots identified at least once.

Another reason for the slow pace of demolitions is the non-cooperation from the local police stations, which have withheld both protection and information on illegal structures under their jurisdictions. Such assistance is vital, civic officials explain, as the police is well versed with their respective localities. Though the BMC has been assigned its own battalion, it comprises just 162 police personnel and is therefore incapable of assisting the civic squad in the city’s 24 wards.

“Background work like information on a particular community residing in the locality, checking whether there has been the death of a noted personality in the vicinity that might spark tension during demolitions and keeping the State Reserve Police on stand-by is all done by the local police station,” Shinde explains.

“Under there circumstances, if the local police do not help, it becomes extremely difficult to push ahead with our demolition drive,” he says. In fact, he reveals, three major demolitions had to be called off at the eleventh hour in the last five months as the local police refused to provide protection, saying they had law and order problems to attend to, he says.