Dinesh Kamath's news item 'CIDCO seeks help of state government and police department' that was published in Newsband

CIDCO seeks help of state government and police department

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The City And Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has shortage of staff. CIDCO authorities find it difficult to control those people involved in unauthorized constructions with a small number of officials whom they possess. The number of officials that CIDCO has is very less as compared to the huge expanse of area they have to keep a watch on so that no unauthorized construction takes place here.

CIDCO has come up with an expansion plan and if this is approved then CIDCO will be in a position to do justice. Currently the staff members are less and also they are not provided with adequate security arrangements. There were times when these officials had gone to tackle unauthorized constructions but they were driven out from there. To prevent this happening, CIDCO will need the cooperation of police department too.

 The State government expects too much from CIDCO. This was evident when CIDCO was appointed as the special planning authority for Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA) in the wake of the proposed international airport project. The state government assigned this task to CIDCO in spite of being aware of the shortage of staff that CIDCO was facing.

Sufficient addition in the number of officials in CIDCO department will enable CIDCO to keep the growth of slum areas under check in its jurisdiction as far as Navi Mumbai is concerned.

MD, Sanjay Bhatia, is trying is best to get the state government to strengthen the controller of unauthorised construction department (CUC). CIDCO is in need of more persons to undertake a detailed and comprehensive LIDAR (light detection and ranging) survey of NAINA area to take note of the topography for future planning of the huge landmass. Addition of more members in their currently existing staff will certainly help CIDCO to properly monitor the NAINA area that is the next hot destination for development.

There are 15 nodes in the city. Eight of them belong to NMMC while CIDCO has seven and hence CIDCO is in need of a nodal office with sufficient staff.

It seems that it is difficult to get justice done by state government but there are times when the court comes to the rescue. The CIDCO officials were pleased to get green signal from Bombay high court to clear the mangroves for the airport project. CIDCO has targeted the Ulwe hill where it would like to build parallel runways for the forthcoming Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA). This freedom granted to it by the court will enable CIDCO to level the hill and facilitate development of the core aeronautical area. The flattening of the hill and clearing the mangrove stretch will help in developing two runways that are designed to run parallel. The runways will be built in such a way that it will be possible for bigger aircrafts to land at the proposed airport. It is not an easy task to cut the hill to the desired level. Since this is a marshy land, strengthening work also needs to be done. CIDCO will have to bear a huge sum to maintain the overall symmetry of the land.

CIDCO has innumerable problems and one of them is where the residents of the city feel harassed by the open illegal activities taking place in CIDCO’s area at Nerul in particular. Here illegal constructions take place and also some unruly mob use the vacant portions to play cards or pursue any other illegal activities. These miscreants gamble and booze openly here and the residents around are terrified. The corporators too are protesting that the plot where the illegal constructions are taking place are actually given on lease to project affected people and hence it cannot be used for any other purpose. CIDCO authorities have been receiving many letters from the residents of this place complaining about the illegal activities taking place in this area but CIDCO feels helpless in the matter of putting a stop to this nonsense. Even though CIDCO’s vigilance department officials keep a watch on this area, the illegal activities continue. However, CIDCO’s CUC department has promised to demolish all the illegal constructions that are found to have come up in this area.

Just recently CIDCO authorities came up with the idea of controlling illegal activities. They are planning to install CCTV cameras at sensitive spots of the city. These cameras will ensure surveillance at the various entry and exit points, commercial centres, public institutions and ensure proper networking of the police department.

The CIDCO area is bigger than the one under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) jurisdiction and hence CIDCO will need more such cameras than those provided to NMMC. The cameras installed by CIDCO will be integrated by the police department in consultation with the government planning and development bodies. It was police commissioner Ashok Sharma’s idea to let CIDCO install cameras wherever it felt was necessary. The cameras of superior qualities will be allotted to CIDCO and these cameras will also be integrated with the ones installed in banks and important public institutions so that proper tracking can be done. CIDCO will have its central command centre at the police commissionerate’s office. This will make it possible for the police to track and network with different departments. Even the traffic police department will benefit by these cameras which will make it possible for them to have a kind of control over those who break traffic rules.

Thus, like NMMC, CIDCO has its own strong points and shortcomings. CIDCO is trying its best to overcome its shortcomings by seeking help from state government, police department and public in general. It is hoped that CIDCO will in the near future be in a position to solve all the problems of the residents who reside within its jurisdiction in Navi Mumbai.