Illegal bungalows on Yeoor hills razed

THANE, DEC 5: Several prominent politicians and citizens here received another jolt on Friday when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, through,...

THANE, DEC 5: Several prominent politicians and citizens here received another jolt on Friday when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, through, the urban Development Secretary Nand Lal, ordered Thane Municipal Commissioner T Chandrashekar to raze all unauthorised bungalows on the picturesque Yeoor hills here.

Within minutes of getting the order, the Commissioner put his men in action and razed the unauthorised structures. First to come down was the bungalow owned by one Dyaneshwar Bhagat but used by former Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress chief Bunty Jitendra Awhad.

Friday afternoon’s order has also directed the Commissioner to submit a compliance report to the government. A number of political leaders from the Congress, Shiv Sena and BJP held a prolonged meeting late last evening to discuss the situation arising out of the sudden drive. This issue of the unauthorised bungalows owned by prominent citizens has been a controversial issue for several years.

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Corporation sources said the bungalows’ owners weregiven due notice to vacate but as they did not pay heed, the corporation had to act. According to reports, there are as many as 121 bungalows in the hills owned by former and present corporators including former mayors, doctors and advocates.

The swift action has given several bigwigs who own these bungalows a run for their money. Of the 141 bungalows in the hills, 20 have been razed. At least 34 are owned by TMC corporators. The action is once again likely to kick up a row between him and the corporators. It may be recalled that when the corporation issued notices to the owners of the bungalows, they made frantics efforts to save them.

They even sought the intervention of Minister Jagganath Patil to no avail.

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