E-Paper
Residents force encroachers to clear sheds in Kondhwa Budruk
Residents had been fighting a long battle with the PMC road department as it failed to take action on the complaints. The residents openly accused the road and building permissions department officials of the PMC of aiding a land scam.
Residents of Prathamesh Park Co-operative Housing Society, Kondhwa Budruk, can now breathe a sigh of relief as the road department of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has accepted the residents’ demand seeking the opening of the approach road to the society.
Residents had been fighting a long battle with the PMC road department as it failed to take action on the complaints. The residents openly accused the road and building permissions department officials of the PMC of aiding a land scam. They claimed that the officials were unable to clear encroachments on the road by two business establishments for the past five years.
The said road is located on survey no 41/1 in Kondhwa Budruk and is awaiting construction despite persistent demands from residents. Meanwhile, Mukta Tilak, Pune mayor, said that direction will be issued to the road department to remove encroachments on all roads sanctioned under the development plan (DP).
The road department has given notices to the encroachers asking them to vacate the public road, failing which strict action will be taken, the notice stated. The road department officials said that following the communication, the encroachers started dismantling the illegal structures put up on the sanctioned DP road. The residents, however, are cautious and instead, have demanded the state government to set up a joint task force to take a policy decision on all the encroached roads under the DP plan in Pune in the best interests of the residents.
Madhusoodan Korekar, an ex-Army man who has been fighting for the road for a very long time, said, “The road department never wanted to remove the encroachment on our approach road for reasons best known to only them. The residents have become aware of their road right and if the road department fails to work according to the law, we will demand penalty in terms of deduction from their salaries and also registration of criminal cases against them as they have been cheating residents for a long time,” he said.
Korekar further said that the land should have been retrieved from the two companies and taken into PMC custody long back. “Why does PMC’s road department require residents to complain and protest for their right to road when it is their duty to open the roads for the commuters and not help encroachers? We want a detailed criminal investigation of all the stakeholders who had caused untold suffering and misery to the honest tax payers and cheated them all these years. We demand cases to be registered against them for their illegal acts which are now on record,” he said.
Daljeet Goraya, NIBM Citizens Watch member, said, “The audacity of road encroachers has increased over the years and the PMC road and building permissions department, mandated to follow the law and uphold the cause of public interest, showed extreme laxity and was highly insensitive towards the residents. This has emboldened the violators. We are building a citizens’ movement to ensure that all of PMC, both lower and higher bureaucracy, is made accountable to the law.”
Mayor Mukta Tilak, when contacted, said, “I will personally look into all such road issues pending before the road department of PMC and ensure that justice is done to the residents. Roads of proper width as sanctioned under the DP must be construct by the PMC and it is the responsibility of the road department to remove the encroachment completely. It is a blanket rule in all cities that DP roads cannot be encroached and the road department is empowered to remove all the encroachments.”
“We will issue directions to the road department to remove such encroachments so that residents do not face inconvenience. Road department must do its work and if it has technical difficulties, then it must inform us,” Tilak added.
