Mumbai: ‘Officials turn a blind eye to encroachment complaints in Vasai-Virar’

Rescue operation underway at the site of the landslide in Rajawali, Vasai. Pic/Hanif Patel

Activists and political parties had submitted several complaints to the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation about the ongoing encroachment and unauthorised constructions in and around Wagralpada area of Rajawali in Vasai, said a senior crime branch officer who is probing a case filed in connection with the landslide that rocked the area on July 13. He further alleged that the civic body still did not take any action.

Two separate cases have been filed in connection with the landslide which claimed two lives - Amit Jitendra Singh, 40, and his daughter Roshni, 16.

Also read: Mumbai: A week after Vasai landslide, slum mafia back in business

"Municipal corporation officials turned a blind eye to the complaints. We have managed to get the complaint letters. The complainants also provided photographs of illegal constructions and encroachment on the plots whose survey numbers are 106, 115, 116, 146 and 147," a senior crime branch officer told mid-day.

Swapnil D'Cunha, one of the complainants, told mid-day, "I personally made several complaints to the VVCMC head office in Virar but the officials did not take any action against builders and land mafia who continue to excavate and flatten the hills and sell the soil so that chawls can be made."

"The mafias have even encroached upon lands belonging to the revenue and forest departments by forcefully evicting tribals in the area. They take advantage of disputes over private land as they know owners will not visit sites that are under litigation," said D'Cunha, president of Vasai city, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

He added, "Whenever any incident takes place or any pressure is mounted on the municipal corporation, top civic officials start an anti-encroachment drive. But this is just an eyewash. The reality is that the same civic officials who order the anti-encroachment drive also plant builders to construct the illegal structures on the same plot to mint money. This is rampant in Vasai-Virar and Nalasopara. Despite repeated complaints, they do not take any action."

13
Day in July when the landslide took place in Vasai