Times
of India: Ahmedabad: Monday, 08 December 2014.
The Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation (AMC) is working on 2.43 lakh applications for
regularization of properties in the city (those constructed till Match 28,
2011). But in the same three years, the city has witnessed close to 3,500
additional instances of illegal construction.
Ironically, a
large number of these illegal constructions are in the Walled City where old
residential havelis are being pulled down to make space for commercial
complexes and apartments. This will only jeopardize Ahmedabad's chances of
qualifying for Unesco's 'world heritage city' status.
An RTI
application filed by Pankaj Bhatt reveals that between March 2011 and 2013, the
AMC identified 3,472 cases of illegal construction in the entire city. Out of
these (till March 30 this year), 960 cases were notified in the Walled City
alone. None of the 3,472 cases can be regularized under the impact fee law. The
maximum illegal structures - 216 and 243, respectively- have come up in Kalupur
and Khadia wards of the Walled City.
Bhatt's RTI
also brought to light two crucial AMC notifications-of September 2001 and August
2000-which required that the deputy TDO conduct surveys with the help of other
officials in every ward for illegal buildings in the city. They were then
supposed to submit a detailed report to their zonal heads on the 5th of every
month. Bhatt said this vigilance team had never gone to any zone in the city
nor submitted any report.
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