Proshun
Chakraborty, TNN | Jul 25, 2013, 03.35 AM IST
NAGPUR: Nagpur Municipal Corporation estate
department and city police have, in a joint survey, identified 1,150 illegal religious
structures in the city constructed on government land. Of these, many are
obstructing free movement of vehicular traffic and pedestrians. The survey
revealed the city has 1,501 religious structures including the illegal ones.
Interestingly, it shows the figure of religious structures in the city has gone
up. Earlier, NMC had identified 1,279 religious structures.
The survey was done by officials of 10 NMC zones and city police. The Supreme Court too had banned encroachment on roads, pavements and sidewalks by religious structures or installation of statues of public figures. In September 2009, a high court division bench in Nagpur had directed Nagpur commissioner of police and municipal commissioner to fix responsibility on officers concerned for areas where illegal structures were hurdles to smooth flow of traffic. Municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane recently convened a meeting of both zonal officers and police inspectors of 23 police stations and instructed them to conduct a joint survey.
The joint survey has included all religious structures and divided them into two categories - A and B. Category A comprises 350 structures that can be regularized while category B is of 1,151 illegal structures that pose law and order problem or obstruct flow of traffic and those cannot be regularized. These have to be removed. With 298 structures (68 under Category A) Dhantoli zone has the highest number of religious structures in the city. Lakadganj follows with 242 (68 under category A). The report will help the civic body to decide what illegal structures should be removed.
Statistics show that despite high number of religious and non-religious illegal structures, none of them was removed ignoring the fact that they were coming in way of city's development plans and also blocked traffic besides creating law and order situation. "Now, the civic chief along with police commissioner will prepare a priority list for action on structures on city roads and footpaths," said source.
However, removal of these encroachments needs approval by the state government, official sources told TOI. As the encroachments were either on NMC, NIT or PWD lands, a proposal has to be moved to the government for clearing the structures, they said. Many encroachers have approached the court for legal remedy and, hence, NMC could not take action to remove the encroachments, said sources.
In certain cases, builders of the layout themselves constructed such religious structures in reserved portions of their layout. The land stood was in the name of these promoters. Hence, action could not be taken against them as they were private lands.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Survey-reveals-1150-illegal-religious-structures-in-city/articleshow/21320206.cms
The survey was done by officials of 10 NMC zones and city police. The Supreme Court too had banned encroachment on roads, pavements and sidewalks by religious structures or installation of statues of public figures. In September 2009, a high court division bench in Nagpur had directed Nagpur commissioner of police and municipal commissioner to fix responsibility on officers concerned for areas where illegal structures were hurdles to smooth flow of traffic. Municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane recently convened a meeting of both zonal officers and police inspectors of 23 police stations and instructed them to conduct a joint survey.
The joint survey has included all religious structures and divided them into two categories - A and B. Category A comprises 350 structures that can be regularized while category B is of 1,151 illegal structures that pose law and order problem or obstruct flow of traffic and those cannot be regularized. These have to be removed. With 298 structures (68 under Category A) Dhantoli zone has the highest number of religious structures in the city. Lakadganj follows with 242 (68 under category A). The report will help the civic body to decide what illegal structures should be removed.
Statistics show that despite high number of religious and non-religious illegal structures, none of them was removed ignoring the fact that they were coming in way of city's development plans and also blocked traffic besides creating law and order situation. "Now, the civic chief along with police commissioner will prepare a priority list for action on structures on city roads and footpaths," said source.
However, removal of these encroachments needs approval by the state government, official sources told TOI. As the encroachments were either on NMC, NIT or PWD lands, a proposal has to be moved to the government for clearing the structures, they said. Many encroachers have approached the court for legal remedy and, hence, NMC could not take action to remove the encroachments, said sources.
In certain cases, builders of the layout themselves constructed such religious structures in reserved portions of their layout. The land stood was in the name of these promoters. Hence, action could not be taken against them as they were private lands.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Survey-reveals-1150-illegal-religious-structures-in-city/articleshow/21320206.cms
