HC pulls up civic body for 66,000 illegal structures in Pimpri

The Bombay High Court has pulled up Municipal Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad near Pune for allowing more than 66,000 illegal structures to come up in the town and warned the civic chief would be held responsible if such state of affairs continued in the future.
Hearing a petition, a bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud observed yesterday, "this was an alarming state of affairs in the jurisdiction of the municipality and corrective measures should be undertaken forthwith."
The civic body informed that out of 66,324 illegal structures, only 225 had been demolished so far while 861 FIRs had been filed against those who had built illegal structures. For the rest, the corporation had submitted a proposal to the state to regularise them.

The judges said that instead of taking action against illegal structures, the corporation, in most cases, had proposed to the state to regularise them. This was indeed shocking and would only encourage illegal structures to come up in the town.
The petition, filed by Jaishree Dange, alleged that a portion of New Millennium School was built illegally on the banks of Pawna river. A garage and a restaurant were also built adjacent to the school. These structures caused pollution in Pawna river, a source of drinking water.
The petition further alleged that no action had been taken against the illegal portion of the school because its former chairman Laxmanrao Jagtap was a local MLA. The civic body, in an RTI reply, had admitted that a portion of the school was illegal.

The school management assured the court that it would remove the illegal construction before May 31, 2014, and restore the building to its original structure.