Mira-Bhayandar: Dealing a severe blow to the illegal construction mafia, Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) chief- Sanjay Katkar has taken a bold decision of revoking all orders related to “unlawful” regularisation of unauthorised structures passed by designated ward officers and assistant municipal commissioners (AMC) before 28, June, 2024.
The order which was issued by the civic chief on Friday, clearly states that the designated officers had breached their discretionary limitations to grant a legal tag to unauthorised structures by misusing the regularisation tool which was beyond their purview and out of their scope of work/ambit of powers conferred to them under section 260 (1) of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 1949.
The matter came to light during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive which hit a hurdle on Friday after owners of several illegal structures in the twin-city flaunted copies of regularisation orders issued by previous ward officers and AMC’s to the officials leading the demolition squad.
Notably, the designated officers are only empowered to serve notices under section 260 of the said act, as to why the illegal structure/building shall not be removed, altered or pulled down. Failure in explaining sufficient cause to the satisfaction of the designated officer, invites removal, altering or pulling down the illegalities, the expenses of which shall have to be borne by the person to whom the notice is served.
It should be noted that hundreds of illegal constructions have been either regularised or awarded repair permission in an illegal manner in the past couple of years in exchange for hefty bribes. While the repairing permissions were misused to illegally construct altogether new structures, the regularisation orders were doled out on virtue of false contentions that the structures existed since the municipal council and gram panchayat regime.
The civic chief has directed his deputy-Ravi Pawar to issue the freshly issued revocation orders to all beneficiary occupants and developers. Some officers who are involved in the corrupt practices are under the scanner and will soon face action, said a senior civic official.
Demolition Day 3: MBMC, MBVV Chief’s Hit the Street.
On day-3 of the ongoing demolition drive, municipal commissioner- Sanjay Katkar and police chief- Madhukar Pandey hit the streets and personally supervised the anti-encroachment operations and security arrangements which were in place to weed out illegally constructed portions / extensions of bars and lodges on the highway in Kashimira. While there are more than 150 bars and lodges in the twin-city, around 40 are currently on the radar in the first phase.
