HC orders to demolish all illegal structures at Patlipada hill in Thane in 3 months
A bench of the Bombay high court, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed four years ago by a group of residents from Hiranandani Estate, Thane, said If residents are complaining of illegal structures mushrooming across the city , The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) or the Thane collector cannot ‘throw its hands up’.
To chalk out a plan to demolish over 400 illegal structures spread across approximately 20 hectares of land at Patlipada hill, a division bench of justices Abhay Oka and A A Sayed ordered the civic chief and collector to structure a committee, not below the rank of deputy municipal commissioner and deputy collector. As per the court orders the demolition is to be done by next three months, and in the next hearing which has been scheduled for July 7, the action report is to be submitted.
After the TMC and collector failed to do anything about the encroachment problem on public land, residents of Hiranandani Estate had moved the court. Shriram Kulkarni advocate appeared, on behalf of residents said, post 2007; the reserved forest area was on the go of shrinking due to explosion of slums.
The collector has been asked by TMC in June 2008, to eliminate illegal structures which have grown up on government land. Action has been taken by collector’s office but only 10 to 15 huts were removed.
As per the residents claim they were told that post monsoon huts will be removed but no action was taken, due to which residents had to knock high court doors.
In 2010, TMC has been asked by the collector to abolish encroachments but no work was done on it. So in June 2010 residents filed a PIL .On the day of hearing court was shocked to learn that the encroachments have not been removed yet, and then the court held TMC and collector accountable for it.
Source: Times of India
A A Sayed, Abhay Oka, Bombay High Court, Deputy Collector, deputy municipal commissioner, Government land, Hiranandani Estate, Illegal structures, Patlipada hill, PIL, Public Interest Litigation, Shriram Kulkarni, Thane, Thane municipal corporation, TMC
