Under pressure to suspend action,says Zagade

“I have to go through tremendous mental stress. The pressure from various quarters for suspending action is beyond imagination,” said Zagade.

He admitted that there was a lot of illegal construction and encroachment in the city. “There is shortage of staff in the PMC in comparison to development activities taking place in the city,” Zagade said,adding that it would take time to bring change in the attitude of the administration.

He said there were three kind of issues – illegal construction that can be regularised,illegal construction that cannot be regularised and construction due to wrong permissions. “The administration was working on addressing all the issues.”

“The construction with wrong permissions was a serious matter and we are reviewing all such permissions while planning action against civic staff responsible for it,” Zagade said.

Objecting to the contention of staff crunch,NCP leader Anil Bhosale said the civic administration always came up with some or the other excuse.

“There has been appointments in the Nuisance Detection Squad to assist in the drive. All kind of support is extended to the administration for carrying out their responsibility,” he said,adding that lethargic approach of the administration was the main reason behind encroachments.