Palghar : The Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) on Monday suspended its Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) who had continued ignoring the increasing number of illegal constructions in his jurisdiction and also allegedly helped the developers get approval for all permissions with the knowledge that the documents used — Non-Agriculture (NA) and Commencement Certificate (CC) — were forged.
The illegal constructions in Vasai-Virar continued to be a menace and the talk of the town across cities, defaming the historically popular Vasai Taluka, as the courts had to intervene to instruct the civic body to demolish the encroachments on the forest and reservation lands.
Sudhakar Sankhe (in pic), the in-charge of the Bolinj area, Virar (W), was deemed to be the reason behind two illegal constructions in his jurisdiction when the VVMC itself ordered an inquiry and instructed the town planning department to look into the serious lapses. On Monday, he was finally suspended and will face a departmental inquiry into illegal constructions in his ward and also into the other charges he is facing.
VVMC commissioner Satish Lokhande, while speaking to FPJ, said, “Sudhakar Sankhe has been suspended as it was proved that he failed to check illegal constructions in his area. He is also facing a few other charges, which will also be investigated while he undergoes a departmental inquiry.”
The complainant, Dr Anil Yadav, who is also a founder-member of an NGO called Support, said, “The permissions used for the construction of these two buildings in question, like the Non-Agriculture (NA) and Commencement Certificate (CC), were issued in 2008 and were given to another developer. The accused, along with the concerned VVMC officers, used the same set to get approvals for these two buildings.”
Dr Yadav had registered a complaint with the Arnala Coastal police station on October 18, requesting them to look into the charges of documents being forged to construct buildings. The Arnala police, after their initial investigations, re-registered an FIR on October 20 under IPC sections 420, 465, 466, 467, 468, 471 and 120(B) against three people and have now launched a full-fledged inquiry.