Most villages listed for illegal construction on merger map

The merger of 28 villages within the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits will bring almost all the villages in Haveli taluka listed by the district administration for illegal constructions within the civic limits. This would mean the PMC, which is better equipped than the district administration as of now to carry out demolition drives will have the onus of tackling it.

Senior officials from the district administration said barring some parts of Wagholi, all the villages listed for illegal constructions are being merged with PMC. "It is the responsibility of the PMC to tackle the issue,'' said the official.

The district administration had listed nearly 1,339 illegal structures in 13 talukas of the district. For Pune city in Haveli taluka, the surrounding areas included areas like Undri, Ambegaon, Katraj, Wagholi, Manjari, Jambhulwadi and Phursungi. All of them are in the merger map.

"We have only some parts of Wagholi to reassess,'' said the official. Senior officials added that PMC would be able to get the work done faster having the machinery and manpower unlike the collectorate which was awaiting a separate wing and machinery sanctioned by the government. Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat had earlier stated that it would be executed soon. However, revenue officials are still awaiting the official orders.

The government was to take a stock of illegal constructions across the state and a draft policy was to be readied based on the findings. The last drive conducted by the Pune district administration was on May 2011 in which 22 structures were razed on Katraj hill slopes, for which Rs 5.22 lakh was the bill. The administration is yet to be reimbursed the amount.

The state government had issued a notification on October 11 to merge 28 fringe villages with PMC, a move that will increase the civic body's geographical area to more than 450 sq km from the present 243.84 sq km.

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