Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Tuesday,
January 17, 2017.
You are
encouraging sheer lawlessness, the Bombay high court told the Maharashtra
government on Monday, as it noticed that more illegal constructions had come up
in Navi Mumbai after the government proposed a policy of regularising unauthorised
constructions en-masse.
You are encouraging sheer lawlessness, the
Bombay high court told the Maharashtra government on Monday, as it noticed that
more illegal constructions had come up in Navi Mumbai after the government
proposed a policy of regularising unauthorised constructions en-masse.
“This is
sheer lawlessness that you are encouraging,” the division bench of justice
Abhay Oka and justice Anuja Prabhudessai told government pleader Abhinandan
Vagyani, while hearing on two public interest litigations (PILs) raising
concern about rampant illegal constructions in Navi Mumbai.
“If all the
planning authorities have the power to regularise certain unauthorised
structures, why this policy,” the bench said. “Everybody gets a license to put
up illegal constructions in view of such a policy. You are raising hopes.
People know that if it is December 2015 [cut-off date] today, tomorrow it will
be 2016 and then 2017.”
The court’s
comments came after advocate Datta Mane, counsel for one of the petitioners,
pointed out that information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act
revealed that after 30 July, 2015, 303 illegal buildings without any permission
from any authority have been constructed or are being constructed in Navi
Mumbai in areas for which CIDCO is the planning authority.
The judges
were irked to note that two illegal buildings demolished by the MIDC, under
high court orders, have been reconstructed and now the flats therein have also
been occupied, and after January 1, 2016, about 130 unauthorized buildings have
been constructed within Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) jurisdiction.
The bench
slammed the government for failing to implement the May 20, 2015, state cabinet
decision to create 106 new posts of police personnel and make them available to
the NMMC for providing protection in preventing and demolishing illegal
constructions. Advocate Sandip Marne, who represented NMMC, pointed out that
the cabinet decision has not yet been implemented and its requests for police
protection to the demolition squad was fulfilled only 21 times out of 98 total
requests.
The PILs are
filed by local residents, Rajesh Mishra and advocate Mayura Maru, complaining
about rampant illegal constructions in Navi Mumbai, the twin city specially
developed by acquiring lands of locals for meeting the increasing demand of
housing, office and commercial space in the financial capital of the country.
Acting on the
PILs, on July 30, 2015, the court ordered CIDCO, NMMC and the MIDC to form
special squads to identify and take action of demolition of all illegal
constructions within their respective areas. It was only after the authorities
began pulling down illegal buildings, primarily encroachments made on CIDCO and
MIDC lands, the state government came out with a policy to protect and
regularise unauthorised constructions across the state.
But, on April
26, 2016, the high court scrapped the policy terming it completely arbitrary.
Thereafter, in July 2016, the state government has come out with another policy
and sought the court’s nod for the same. Now, the matter will come up on
February 22, when the court is likely to hear arguments on the state’s plea
seeking approval to its second policy.
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