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Mhatre bridge encroachment: PMC serves notices to 30 building owners in riverbed area
The buildings comprise marriage halls, restaurants, and other cement concrete structures which have been primarily constructed against norms
The building permissions department of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has served notices to 30 structures illegally coming up in the riverbed area between Rajaram Bridge and Mhatre Bridge area.
The buildings comprise marriage halls, restaurants, and other cement concrete structures which have been primarily constructed against norms.
PMC superintendent engineer Yuvraj Deshmukh (Building Permission Department) said, “A meeting with the owners was held and notices have been issued to them regarding the violations.”
The notice, according to Deshmukh, has asked landowners to remove the constructions on their failing and the PMC will take action.
“These constructions have taken place near the blue line and action is being taken in that zone in a few days,” Deshmukh said.
The notice has been issued under section 53 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act.
“We served the notice on November 30 and a joint survey of the area was also undertaken. Some of the owners also have started willingly to bring down the structures,” said Bipin Shinde Executive Engineer (Building Permission Department) said.
In the past, PMC had directed some of the unauthorised establishments to clear way while the civic body had also carried out anti-encroachment drives in 2017 and 2022.
Earlier, Sujan Co-operative Housing Society in 2015 had approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking removal of illegal encroachments on the DP road claiming that those constructions in the riverbed area belonged to the influential and very powerful business interests.
The PMC took some action in 2017 and after the appointment of the PMC administrator in 2022, some action was undertaken. As per the directions of the tribunal, the civic body was expected to remove the encroachments, but it kept on postponing the drive citing the Ganesh festival and other cultural events before the authorities.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed that the green belt be protected and had ordered the PMC commissioner to take action against encroachments by restaurants and marriage halls within the blue line of the river.
According to Shinde, since the tribunal deadline is about to end on December 30, the PMC served notices to some 30 buildings on November 30.
“The NGT has set a deadline of December 10, and the order was given on October 10 by the tribunal wherein it set a deadline of two months for the removal of the constructions in the riverbed,” Shinde said.
The cooperative housing society approached NGT with a substantial issue relating to environmental pollution and environmental degradation caused by various marriage halls and Mangal Karyalayas located on 100 ft DP road starting from Mhatre Bridge to Rajaram Bridge in Pune and invoked provisions of Sections 14 and 15 of the NGT Act 2010 for the relief therefrom.
The society alleged that the environmental degradation is caused due to the encroachment on the designated green belt area, being within the blue flood line marked along the river Mutha by such marriage halls.
The applicants also generally raised the issue of similar pollution and environmental degradation caused by marriage halls and lawns located in the state of Maharashtra. The petition pointed out that vehicles fitted with High Decibel Sound Amplifying Systems are illegally and unauthorizedly used in marriage processions. Generally, deafening high-pitched sound has a direct effect on human health and the authorities often turn deaf ear to the complaints made by citizens in that regard. Not only in such marriage processions but also in religious and Judgment (27 political processions was found illegal and unauthorized use of such vehicles fitted with such high decibel sound amplifying systems to the detriment of the environment and, consequently the human health. All these things need to be controlled.
The NGT in its order had directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to regulate the activities at marriage halls and lawns as per the guidelines framed by them in the performance of its functions under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 within two months. In case of non-compliance, the Board shall take suitable legal action including that of closure of non-complying marriage halls/ lawns. c) The marriage halls and lawns shall be directed by respective urban local bodies and authorities to segregate their solid waste and treat and dispose of the same through composting or bio-methanation within their premises and handover recyclable material either to the authorized waste pickers or the authorized recyclers as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, the order noted.
The PMC administration stated that the action will be initiated on buildings constructed near the Blue Line.
