Parties call Thane bandh to regularize illegal bldgs

CRIME STOREYS

Politicians Decide To Enforce Thursday Shutdown To Protest Demolition Of Illegal Structures & Highlight 'Social Cost'

    More than 70 people died and several others were injured as an illegal Mumbra building suddenly caved in last month, but all political parties in Thane have together imposed a dawn-to-dusk bandh on Thursday to protest the civic administration's demolition of illegal and dilapidated structures. 
    Chiding the state government for "delayed response" on the sensitive issue of illegal buildings, Thane MLAs Eknath Shinde, Rajan Vichare and Pratap Sarnaik (all Shiv Sena) and Jitendra Awhad (NCP) along with local functionaries of Congress, MNS and RPI on Tuesday protested the crackdown on illegal buildings. "Our demand is to regularize all illegal buildings 
and rehabilitate those evacuated from their homes. In future, those responsible for illegal buildings should be dealt with MCOCAtype laws," Awhad said on Tuesday. 
    Sharing the dais with Awhad, his arch political rival, Sena leader Shinde said, "We do not favour illegal constructions. However, if 10 lakh innocent people are to be rendered homeless by the demolitions we will not be mute spectators. Our bandh is merely to lend moral support to these people and draw the attention of the government to the social cost of demolitions." 
    "The building collapse and death of 74 people has been turned into an opportunity by these leaders to pressurize the government for higher FSI in Thane and Mumbra. They have been at each other's throats trying to unseat the mayor and standing committee chairperson. The solidarity on illegal buildings is missing when it comes to development and welfare of law-abiding citizens," said Nitin Deshpande, an activist. Most Bhiwandi godowns illegal, state govt admits T he state government on Tuesday admitted many unauthorized godowns have been constructed in Bhiwandi and assured action against their owners. "Most godowns in Bhiwandi are illegal. The government has issued MRTP notices to the owners," minister of state for urban development, Bhaskar Jadhav said. The issue was raised during a calling attention motion by Vinod Tawde, leader of the Opposition in the legislative council. "If the government is aware of illegal constructions then why is it not filling an FIR against the owners?" Tawde said. "Now MMRDA has been appointed special planning authority and it will take action on illegal godowns," Jadhav said. | TNN

The Thane civic body is demolishing several illegal structures and issued notices to others