Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Some buildings in the city violate laws relating to CRZ' that was published in Newsband

Some buildings in the city violate laws relating to CRZ

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Some buildings in Navi Mumbai are likely to face criminal action for violating laws relating to coastal regulatory zone (CRZ).

Majority of the buildings on Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai, including high profile societies that house bureaucrats and police officials, don’t have CRZ clearance. The state has sought legal opinion on how to proceed against such buildings after the Union environment ministry’s refusal to regularise them.

It seems that the Evironment Ministry will be forced to take action. It is studying the sections of the Environment Protection Act to find out whether the action can be taken against such buildings.

It seems that developers or promoters of these buildings have flouted coastal norms. The penalty for this could be five years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to Rs1 lakh. They could also receive notice under section 5 of the Act, which empowers authorities to cut their power and water connections.

The state environment department is likely to issue this notice, give buildings a hearing and forward the cases to the Centre for further action.

Earlier the union environment minister Jayanti Natarajan had refused to regularise these buildings despite chief minister Prithviraj Chavan proposing a hefty fine for their regularisation.

These buildings are located in the coastal area and yet they don’t possess the clearances from Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA).

Some developers who have violated the law claim that they were unaware about the fact that they needed to take permission of MCZMA since nobody informed them.