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Journalism of Courage
VADODARA, June 17: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation has issued more than 700 show-cause notices over the past four days to commercial complexes and hotels on R C Dutt Road, Fatehgunj, Old Padra Road and Manjalpur for violating building permissions and encroaching upon road alignments.
Business that have grown illegally in other parts of the city, too, have cause to fear, as the civic body focused on very select localities in the first leg of its three-month-long drive.
Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria told Express Newsline that his priority was to clear shops that were violating the alignment norms on roads ranging between nine meters and 40 meters in width.
Later, he said, he would target commercial complexes and business establishments that had proliferated beyond the prescribed limits. He specified that the drive would not target residences.
There was no question of regularising unauthorised extensions, Aloria said, adding that they would be demolished only if builders or owners did not volunteer to remove them. According to Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Administration) H S Patel, many people who had started demolishing the extensions on their own.
Among the targets of the VMC drive are gates, shops and ice-cream parlours built in parking lots, sheds, barricades and use of margin area meant to be kept open.
While 425 of the 700-odd notices sent out are directed at commercial complexes and business establishments, the others — more than 300 — have been served on those violating road alignment norms. Twenty high-rise buildings have been also given notices. The notices, issued under Section 260 (1) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, asks the alleged defaulters to show cause within a week why the additional construction should not be demolished.
Aloria said if the builders and shop owners failed to comply with the notices, the VMC would issue notices under Section 260 (2) of the BPMC Act and raze the constructions. Three persons who were served notices for additional construction in residences on Baroda Productivity Council Road are reported to have told the VMC that they had not violated any norms.VMC sources said action would not be taken if they could back up their claim.
