The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) decision to notify ward officers as designated officers, to be able to hold them liable for any illegal construction activity in their respective areas, has proved to be ineffective.
According to reports obtained through an RTI query by Aam Aadmi Party state committee member Ravi Srivastava, the NMMC has identified more than 394 violations in the last one year, but not a single officer has been penalised for them.
Last year, the then NMMC commissioner Bhaskar Wankhede had decided to hold the designated officer responsible for any illegal construction found in the civic body’s jurisdiction. “We have notified ward officers as designated officers and this change has been made in the gazette as well,” municipal commissioner Mr Wankhede had informed standing committee members during the weekly meeting held at civic headquarters in Belapur in July 2012.
According to news reports, he had also said that “if any officer does not take action against unauthorised constructions in his jurisdiction, he will be held responsible for the lapse and strict action will be taken against him”.
However, figures obtained through the RTI from the encroachment division of NMMC clearly points out that the earlier decision has proved futile. Mr Srivastava has now demanded strong action against the erring public servants. Despite repeated attempts, current NMMC commissioner Abasaheb Jarhad, was unavailable for comment.