PORVORIM: Expressing department’s helplessness to act against the unauthorised structures in the non-planning areas, Minister for Town and Country Planning (TCP) Vijai Sardesai, on Monday, urged the House to debate and decide on granting more powers to the department by way of extending Section 52 and Section 53 of the TCP Act to the non-planned areas for razing illegal structures.
Sardesai informed the State Legislative Assembly that nearly one crore sq mts of orchard land is being illegally sub-divided and sold as residential plots to unsuspected buyers. The Department has identified nearly 99 cases of such violations, which are treated as cognisable offence with one year simple imprisonment and a fine upto Rs 10 lakh, he said.
The minister also said that 1223 permissions were granted between notifying of Regional Plan 2021 in Nov 2011 to March 2012, by the then Cong government.
Sardesai was replying to the series of questions on TCP clearances for projects in Mandrem constituency and on orchard land. The questions were raised by Mandrem Congress MLA Dayanand Sopte and BJP’s Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral.
Sopte pointed out before the House that there are total 11 projects in his constituency, where the department has goofed up on providing the information on the date of application and grant of permission to the projects. The MLA pointed out that one project at Ashwem, which was granted technical clearance for an hotel project, has now illegally converted the same into construction of villas. He demanded action in this matter.
