BMC in trouble for not razing illegal pandals

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has indicated that it may initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Brihanmumbai Muni-cipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner for fail-ing to restrict illegal pandals in the city. The court will pass an order coming Monday. On Wednesday, the BMC commissioner informed the court in an affidavit that despite directions, 13 ward officers gave permission to 44 pandals in their area, which had already been counted as illegal by the revenue department. However, the court held that this was in violation of its order.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice M.S. Sonak was hearing a PIL filed by Dr Mahesh Bedekar against illegal pandals in the city, which cause citizens and pedestrians a lot of distress. The BMC on Wednesday filed its affidavit that as per the HC direction of 11 August to 16 August, the BMC had tried to comply with all directions of the court. The affidavit stated that as per the HC direction, nine teams of the state revenue department had visited 15 wards in suburban Mumbai and inspected 863 pandals. Sixty-seven pandals had been demolished by the BMC.

BMC also accepted that its ward officers had given permission to 44 pandals after inspection by the revenue teams and hence, the commissioner had directed the deputy commissioner Narendra Barde to issue show-cause notices to the concerned officers and had also directed Barde to warn them henceforth that such action would not be tolerated. The BMC also assured that next year onwards, such late permissions would not be granted to pandals.

The court however was not convinced with the BMC’s contention and said that it was in violation of its earlier orders. It said that issuing show-cause notice would not be sufficient and indicated contempt action.