Civic body again refrains from
demolishing Hasan House
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Once again, civic
officials from B ward have taken cosmetic action against an illegal building
with the address 111, Zakaria Masjid Street, also called Hasan House. The
officials came, struck a few blows with hammers on the building, had lunch and
left, in an exact repeat of the ‘action’ that B ward officials had taken in the
first week of February. Of course, they must have taken a few photographs to be
placed on record while submitting the report to municipal commissioner Ajoy
Mehta.
While dna has been
writing about illegal structures coming up in the guise of old structures being
100% repaired, the residents of the area have lodged several more complaints
about work on other such illegal buildings being carried out across the ward.
dna had reported on
April 10 how Hasan House was ready and its developer is planning to give
possession of flats once the building gets a power connection. However, on
April 11, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta ordered additional municipal
commissioner Pallavi Darade to visit the illegal structure and submit an
action-taken report within a week.
Darade visited the
structure and officials were instructed to take action. But unfortunately, no
such action was taken. What happened instead was an orchestrated drama wherein
six-eight labourers went up to the 10th floor of the building at 12.45pm and
hammered on the walls for 30 minutes, even as officials from the building and
factory department waited in a vehicle a little distance away from the
building.
dna had first
reported on December 2, 2015, about five illegal structures constructed in the
area during the Diwali holidays. Local politicians, elected representatives and
developers work hand-in-glove and civic officials have turned a blind eye to
these structures.
Hasan House, an
11-storey load-bearing structure, was constructed in just one month. B ward
officials were reluctant to demolish the structure and delayed action, even
after it was scheduled on the list and the police had promised protection to
the officials.
Assistant
commissioner of B ward, Srinivas Kilaje, and an engineer from the building and
factory department, Vishal Mhaiskar, were two of the officials responsible for
taking action against the unscrupulous developers, but they dragged their feet
on the issue.
The officials merely
shot off a notice and never took any action. When dna did a follow-up story,
the officials assured that action would be taken, but never fulfilled this
promise. Almost three months later, in February, a symbolic demolition was
undertaken. This was an eyewash as the civic staff hammered on the walls for a
few minutes and stopped it after the developer’s men approached them.
Such buildings have
no completion certificates or occupation certificates, and yet have access to
civic amenities like water, sewerage and electricity.
Credit : http://epaper.dnaindia.com/
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