Supreme Court Issues Orders To Demolish Illegal Buildings In Maharashtra

That it needed the Supreme Court of India’s directions for illegal construction in Maharashtra, mainly in its cities, to come under the hammer tells a story of pelf, connivance and more. The Maharashtra government issued an order this week directing all district collectors to follow the procedure set down by the apex court, both for demolishing the existing ones and measures to control such construction. The SC adjudicated on petitions concerning illegal buildings in Malvan Municipal Council even as the Bombay High Court is seized of similar matters in Nagpur, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The government order warns the officials of stringent action if they fail to comply. So far, so good, but several uncomfortable questions and issues arise.

It took nearly four months after the SC directive for the government order to be issued, which is sufficient time for several such buildings to find ways to get their structures regularised. Was the delay deliberate? Then comes the key aspect of how such illegal buildings, thousands of them, came to be when even a two-wheeler parked wrongly is towed away. Constructing a structure requires the promoters and builders to secure a number of permissions and approvals, submit plans and proposals, receive no-objection certificates and so on; half a dozen are needed even before the first axe hits the plot. All of this takes months and taps right into the civic system. Were all the concerned officers sleeping at their desks during the process?

Clearly, the concept of vigilance failed. Who issued the approvals, and who turned a blind eye while the construction was underway? calls for accountability from the highest to the lowest rungs in offices issuing the permissions and approvals. There’s more to the illegal buildings’ saga than meets the eye. There is gain for all those involved. The accountability factor will not be addressed by merely demolishing illegal structures. This aspect was touched upon by the Bombay HC last month when it urged the Maharashtra government to consider legislating stringent measures to hold all parties involved in illegal constructions accountable and emphasised the need for severe deterrents.

What is called for is a robust, tamper-proof framework that digitalises approvals and permissions by minimising the human interface and discretionary decisions, all overseen by an ombudsman-like agency. The Maharashtra government is unlikely to go that far because the SC did not specifically ask for this, and the government would not want to disappoint its officers. Just how vast the gains are can be seen in their spread. Nearly 10 years ago, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had counted nearly 56,000 illegal buildings in Mumbai. The Navi Mumbai civic authorities were pulled up by the Bombay HC for allowing thousands of illegal buildings to be constructed, even as the City and Industrial Development Corporation demolished nearly 2,200 illegal structures on 56 acres in the past weeks. Without fixing accountability, this is akin to swatting flies in summer.