Munde’s Worli office illegal: BMC
Deputy leader of BJP in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde’s office in Worli has been found to be illegal by the BMC, but no action has been taken to restore the building even two months after a notice was served to the society. The BMC served a notice to the secretary of Shubhada Cooperative Housing Society on January 28 to restore the building as per an approved plan.
According to the notice (The Asian Age possesses a copy), after receiving complaints, the BMC carried out an inspection and found unauthorised additions, alterations, amalgamation and change of user in shop numbers 1 to 15. The civic body also found an unauthorised office constructed on part of the terrace of the first floor of the D and E wings of the building. Mr Munde has been operating his office from these premises.
The land on which Shubhada CHS stands, near the Mumbai Police and Armed Police Headquarters in Worli, was allotted for the construction of private residential quarters for MPs and MLAs. On the ground floor of this building, on the Pochkhanawala Road, permission was given to construct 14 convenience shops to serve day-to-day needs, such as kiranas, vegetable, milk etc. shops. Permission was also given to construct a basement for parking and for storage. Such shops were given permission in accordance with the development control regulation (DCR) rules. Once the initial permission was given to build these convenience shops, certain influential persons then violated the law, merged the shops and connected them with the basement to indulge in illegal acts.
On receiving information of such acts, activist Amit Maru took up this matter and advocate Abha Singh is pursuing the same. “The BMC gave the society 10 days time to restore the original plan on January 28, but it has done nothing so far. Now, we will move the environment department for action under the Environment Protection Act 1986,” said Ms Singh. She further added, “Mr Munde’s office falls in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) area and such acts constitute a violation of the CRZ notification, which in turn is a criminal offence under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act 1986.” As per DCR, such violation can never be regularised, but restored.
Keshav Upadhye, media manager of Mr Munde said, “Mundeji has always been a law abiding citizen and if something wrong has been done, then law will take its course.”
A close associate of Mr Munde said, “This is absurd and Mr Munde is being framed in a political trap. There are many netas in this building who have made many alterations and amalgamations, but why is Mundeji being targeted?” An engineer from the building proposal department, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We are considering strict further action in the matter as the notice has been overlooked completely.”
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