Dinesh Kamath's column on 'Inside Navi Mumbai (11) (The scourge called ‘Encroachment’)' that was published in Newsband

The scourge called ‘Encroachment’

Encroachers are big nuisance in Navi Mumbai. There are many residents of the city who feel harassed by these encroachers. I agree that the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) are doing their best to put an end to this scourge called encroachment. But they will have to do something really drastic to put a permanent end to this problem. It is rightly said that prevention is better than cure. So both CIDCO and NMMC should form ‘Preventive Squad’ which will just concentrate on preventing encroachment anywhere in the city. If this squad fails, then the next step should be to drive away these encroachers at the earliest stage. If this is not done and the encroachers are allowed to spread themselves and multiply then this problem will be like cancer, as M K Madhvi said.

The residents of the societies near the Fantasia Business Park at Vashi are facing the nuisance caused by the encroachers.  Both the residents and shopkeepers have been complaining about this. The encroached area is close to commercial complexes. Residents accuse the authorities of indifference. They allege that these encroachers also litter the place. They fear that presence of the encroachers can lead to a spurt in the criminal activities.

NMMC straightaway said that particular space comes under CIDCO. What has CIDCO to say? The CIDCO has said it will not be able to evict  the squatters residing  under the bridge that  leads to Palm Beach Road as they are busy conducting other anti-encroachment drives this month. This claim by CIDCO itself proves the magnitude of this problem and scarcity of staff faced by both CIDCO and NMMC owing to which they are not able to tackle encroachments all over the city at one time.

Another thing that comes in the way of solving this problem is the procedures followed by CIDCO and NMMC. They don’t act on the complaints of the residents at once. What they do is once they receive the complaint, they first ask their encroachment department to prepare a report. This itself consumes a lot of time. Next they issue notice after notice. This consumes still more time. During this period the encroachers spread widely and multiply. Ultimately the two organizations conduct an anti-encroachment drive.

It would be wise on the part of CIDCO and NMMC if they would cut down these procedures considerably so that they can take prompt action against encroachers. Delay in carrying out the demolition drive only adds considerably to the problem.

The work of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) anti-encroachment department is always the bone of contention during the standing committee meetings. When the corporators point accusing fingers at some of the officials, the administration immediately shields the officers, who face criminal action for the unauthorized constructions in their ward. As per a state government resolution, the ward officer will be penalized for illegal constructions under his jurisdiction. But who will implement this resolution?  

Vilas Bhoir, the Congress corporator, has also been voicing the concern over the increasing encroachments and the indifference shown by the officials. He was the one who highlighted the unauthorized construction on a land reserved for crematorium in Kopri. He should be lauded for having managed to get the anti-encroachment department carry out a drive. But of the three unauthorized buildings, action was taken against just one.

The question is whether there are ward officers who are hand-in-glove with the developers? Another thing is that in case the anti-encroachment department wakes up and carries out a demolition drive it is neither the ward officers nor the developers who lose anything. The losers are the poor innocent buyers.  

Corporator M K Madhvi rightly called encroachments as the cancer of the city which if not addressed at the early stage, will later become incurable. There are so many unauthorized markets in several nodes in the city. Several complaints have been registered in NMMC and CIDCO. If the anti-encroachment department is not paying any attention to the complaints, why does this department exist at all? Whenever the corporators complain, all that the NMMC administration says is that they will ask the concerned ward officer to come up with the report. After that no action is taken or action is taken only after repeated complaints from the corporators during the meetings.

Another question that arises is whether both CIDCO and NMMC are under political pressure owing to which they find it not possible to carry out demolition drives on time? Just recently, huge mob of protestors in Kamothe prevented demolition of temples and chawls encroaching on 12.5% plots for PAPs.

CIDCO’s CUC (controller of unauthorized construction) team led by its chief Anil Patil was compelled to retreat, allegedly due to political interference. The huge mob of protestors blocked the path of the CIDCO team and prevented the demolition squad for initiating legal action. It seems that former MP Ramsheth Thakur intervened in support of the locals and urged the CIDCO’s demolition team to stall the drive.

The squad had partially demolished an Ayyappa temple built by a section of South Indians in the locality, when a huge mob of locals protested the drive. The leader of the team gave the reason that he just took the necessary precaution to see to it that the religious sentiments of the devotees are not hurt. Hence, before razing down the illegal temple, the idol of the deity kept in the sanctum sanctorium was shifted to a safer place. Due to the protest, even the demolition of three illegally built chawls could not be carried out. Tahkur, who had intervened to resolve the issue, claimed that the eligibility of the PAPs is still pending and that CIDCO’s   record does not show any such pending eligibility. Thus the CUC team was compelled to retreat.

So you can’t blame CIDCO and NMMC every time when they fail to take action against encroachments. There are so many factors to be looked into before carrying out such a big step. Remember that it is easy to demolish but extremely difficult to reconstruct what is demolished. Hence the anti encroachment department has to think thousand times before carrying out a demolition drive.