When Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprung the nationwide lockdown on a four-hour notice, one imagined all commercial activity came to a grinding halt, with the civic authorities keeping a strict vigil on movements and activities across the city.
However, a recent survey has shown that for some reason the civic officials and police prowling the streets failed to notice a frenetic mushrooming of multi-storeyed buildings across Kondhwa. Remarkably, the nefarious developers were even able to access water and power to carry on their evidently illegal constructions.
Now, that a local social group — Madat Foundation — has run a survey that could pinpoint 63 such constructions that have come up in the past seven months, in just a periphery of 2 sq km on the Kondhwa-NIBM stretch and placed it before the municipal commissioner and the district collector, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been galvanised into action, sending out notices to the errant developers since Monday.
What is more chilling, members of the foundation say their finding is just the tip of the iceberg, given the rampant construction witnessed in the area, while the civic body looked the other way.
It was the construction of these buildings that betrayed their illegal status. In gross violation of norms, they were bereft of side margins, basic amenities and proper ventilation.
The match-box verticals comprising 11-12 floors were erected on just 2,000 sq ft of land. The construction material used was also clearly sub-standard. These were homes targeting the marginal income groups, who were largely ignorant of the legal status of the structures they were buying purely for their affordability.
This, precisely, is a matter of grave concern at Kondhwa, which has witnessed several building collapses. In June last year, 17 people died when a wall of a residential building caved in lashed down by heavy rains. Earlier in April that same year, 16 families had a close shave when the pillar of an illegal building cracked, thankfully during the day. To date, over 20 people have been killed in a span of a year, due to minor and major accidents at construction sites in the area.
“Our survey was focused on just 2 sq km in Kondhwa where we’d noticed a surge in illegal construction during the lockdown. They were all high-rises. The fact that these developers managed to sustain their water and power linkages through the lockdown, without any hurdle, exposes that the civic officials had a role to play in this scam,” said Akbar Shaikh, founder president of Madat Foundation.
The purported helplessness claimed by the civic officials after the matter was reported is another eye popper. “On our complaint, officials informed us that it is impossible for them to act given the absence of access roads to the properties, which cannot be negotiated by the heavy machinery needed for demolition. In effect, the poor people who purchased these flats will anyway be cheated,” Shaikh bemoaned.
Sunil Jagtap, another local resident and member of the foundation, pointed out, “Such constructions need to be stalled at the very outset. However, the authorities allow them to be built unhindered and wait until they are occupied to start sending notices. This afterthought only makes the task more tedious. The whole operation is carried out hand-in-glove. When the civic body cannot take its machinery to these buildings, how will these people avail ambulances, fire tenders and other facilities during emergency?”
On a more derisive note, another local Shivajirao Bhosle noted, “The fear of possible demolition no longer exists, empowering offenders to continue constructing such buildings. The police have also become mute spectators under political pressure.”
Trying to justify their act, Nisar Tamboli, one such developer, argued, “The poor and lower middle-class people are unable to build any house due to inflated realty rates. We are at least providing them a shelter. We also legalise the properties post-construction. It is the government that needs to change the FSI policy to bring homes within the reach of common people.”
Accepting the reported oversight, Namdeo Gambhire, executive engineer at the building development and control department of PMC, admitted, “True, illegal constructions thrived in the past seven months. A few gangs are engaged in such activity and are capable of erecting slabs within a week. We’ve verified the complaints and issued demolition notices to the developers concerned. During the lockdown, there were instructions to not vacate people staying in illegal structures, so we had to hold our horses. But now we are planning a massive demolition drive on such constructions. We’ve booked over 52 developers and more are in the pipeline. We are also focusing on the political pressures and law and order issues that are likely to crop up when we act.”
Yuvraj Deshmukh, superintendent of the same department, added, “We’ve started our action based on the citizen complaints that have come in. We’re also seeking police help to avoid possible protests by the developers. The drive will intensify from next week. We’ve appealed to people to not purchase sub-standard and illegal houses to avoid future trouble.”
