Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Anti-encroachment dept doesn’t care to punish encroachers, why?' that was published in Newsband

Anti-encroachment dept doesn’t care to punish encroachers, why?

By Dinesh Kamath

Picture of NMMC

State government has made it a practice to send an official on deputation, Many corporators are of the opinion that this particular official should be handed the charge of the anti-encroachment department. They feel that this officer will be in a position to manage this department efficiently. According to them, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) lack officials who can handle this department in a way it should be since they tend to feel pressurized and also most of the time they give in to the pressure.

Another advantage of having state government official at the helm is he will not allow local politics to influence his decision since he harbours the fear that if he did so he would be transferred somewhere else.

Many criticisms have been showered upon the functioning of the anti-encroachment department in recent times. This department has been accused of not having control over the situations relating to real estate and also they tend to be corrupt most of the time.

It has been found that the encroachment department tends to exploit the poor class in particular since the latter is not able to defend themselves and also they don’t have the backing of any top political leaders. But the same department just doesn’t care to take action against the rich and influential, however wrong they may be, and many a time, the department is bought by big builders.

There have been cases when encroachments have been done by powerful developers and the administration has just not cared to take action against them in spite of many complaints received by them.

For example, at Shirawane there was a heap of debris lying on an open plot for quite a long time. In spite of having reported the matter to the ward officers, nothing worthwhile has been done in that direction. The reason that NMMC gave was that the plot belonged to the MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) and was yet to be transferred to the NMMC. Now if this claim by NMMC is true then one can’t blame them. But then who will solve this problem of debris accumulating at that particular spot since this accumulation has given birth to a another problem - the nuisance of rats in this area?

One corporator rightly asked the question as to who gave the ward officers the authority to allow the dumping on the plot, when they very well knew that it belonged to the MIDC. The question that arises is whether NMMC can take action against an illegal activity at a spot which belongs to someone else? If they do have the power then why do they hesitate to use the power?

Subhash Gaikar, deputy municipal commissioner, who is supposed to be in-charge of the anti-encroachment department, claims that he just has been given an additional charge of this department and that he is not a full-fledged deputy munic ipal commissioner.

Thus it is become clear that no official in NMMC is willing to take action against many cases of encroachments in the city simply because they are pressurized by some influential quarters. In such a case it would be wise if the state government intervened in the matter and solved the problem.