Sources said that the stay order, conveyed verbally on Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's instructions, spells finis to the Operation Demolition as the suggested alternative -- to confiscate unauthorised structures for use -- will take many months to be formalised, if at all. This was the third attempt to demolish the unauthorised structures built on forest and tribal land in contravention of the Thane Development Plan.

It now transpires that Joshi was only carrying out the command of his mentor, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Among the bungalows due to be razed was one belonging to his estranged son, Jaidev. Also, local leaders of the Senahad apparently expressed their displeasure over the recent demolition spree in Thane.

Thackeray, according to Joshi, prefers that these bungalows are confiscated since demolition doesn't serve any purpose. Only four of the 120 bungalows -- most of them owned by politicians of the Shiv Sena and Congress -- were demolished by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) on December 3 and 4 when the stay order was communicated to municipal commissioner T Chandrashekhar.

The demolition order was despatched from Mantralaya late evening on December 3. Barely 48 hours later, a wireless message from the office of the Chief Secretary, Maharashtra government, stayed the order.

It took a laborious one year to complete the pre-demolition legal formalities for the Yeoor bungalows, say TMC officials. The first --- and expected -- roadblock came soon after the procedure began last year when some owners approached the Bombay High Court for a stay. The high court vacated that stay on November 4 this year when the TMCadministration swung into action.

``We had no option but to refer the matter to the state government. We began Operation Demolition when the government order arrived,'' said senior Thane Municipal Corporation officials. They were ``stunned'' by the verbal stay orders, they added.

Two of the demolished bungalows belong to Sena leaders in Thane -- Ramesh Vaite and Madan Mantri, chairperson of the TMC's transport committee. One was owned by a Youth Congress leader Jitendra Awhad - which he denies --while the fourth belonged to Mali Builders. Sources said that 34 present and former municipal corporators of the TMC owned bungalows in this area, marked ``Green Zone'' or no-development zone in the Development Plan. The bungalows are spread over 100 acres.

It's unlikely that the TMC administration will -- or can -- move against the bungalow owners yet another time. The Operation Demolition was scuttled twice earlier, sources said. Interestingly, the Congress was in power on both occasions in the past. SharadPawar and Sudhakarrao Naik during their tenures as chief ministers, had taken similar decisions on the unauthorised construction in Yeoor. Said a senior bureaucrat, ``Yeoor is a ticklish issue for the Maharashtra government.''

The Operation Demolition comes in the wake of the TMC taking stringent action against unauthorised structures, both residential and commercial, in Thane during the last 15 months after Chandrashekhar took over as the municipal commissioner. A survey by the corporation revealed that nearly 70,000 structures -- buildings of all kinds -- were either illegal or unauthorised. Many of these are owned by local politicians or by a builder-politician axis which made it difficult to take administrative action, officials said. Chandrashekhar said, ``I can only wait for and follow government orders.''

Despite the political opposition, the TMC managed to raze about 10,000 unauthorised structures in several phases in the last few months. From Thane city, the civic administration moved to Yeoor.``It was the most definitive action taken so far. Earlier, demolition notices were issued but not followed up due to political pressure,'' said a senior official.

Thane city and outskirts witnessed a spate of unauthorised construction between 1985 and 1995 when it developed into a satellite town to an expensive Mumbai.

Though Joshi has promised to ``study the issue'' to draw up the guidelines for possible confiscation, bureaucrats say it will take many months to formalise one. At the end of it, the illegality still persists. Worse, it will open a completely new controversy for thousands of unauthorised structures -- including slums and encroachments -- in Mumbai and Thane.