Why no action against school for encroachment, ask Versova locals

mid-day's May 13 report on the encroachment over the past decade

It took less than a week for the authorities to swoop in and take action against star comedian Kapil Sharma for encroaching on a protected mangrove forest in Andheri West. But, less than a kilometre away, a local school run by an NCP leader has managed to get away with the same crime for over 10 years. Locals are now questioning the motives of officials from the BMC, tehsildar's office and the mangroves cell, all of whom have allegedly turned a blind eye to the issue.

Action against Sharma
Yesterday, the mangroves cell of the forest department visited the area where Kapil Sharma's office is located, and the officials found that the comedian was indeed guilty of encroaching upon mangroves, and violating both coastal and environmental regulations. An assistant conservator of forest-rank official had also visited the area and confirmed to mid-day that they had found more than 50 bungalows, belonging to Sharma and other celebrities, in violation of regulations. Today, the team will hand over the final report on the matter to the environment department and the collector's office.

However, the authorities failed to display such swift action even though local residents of the same area have cried themselves hoarse about similar encroachment by the Janki Devi Public School, which is run by NCP leader Narendra Varma.

Flashback
In May, mid-day had highlighted how the school had gobbled up half an acre of green cover so it could build a parking lot for its school buses (‘NCP neta's school gobbles up open space, and claims it's protecting it', May 13). Worse still, this encroachment is right next to the Versova mangroves, which is now threatened by the concretisation. One of the school's trustees is NCP leader Varma, who claimed he was protecting the open space and had only built the parking lot there to curb dust problems.

"What is shocking is the fact that the authorities have been prompt enough in taking action against Kapil Sharma, but the same departments are tight-lipped when it comes to illegal construction of a paver-block road that was done by the trustee of the Janaki Devi Public School. In the last 10 days, this road has been widened further, and it is now within 50 metres of the mangrove forest, which is a direct violation of the law," said one of the residents.

The locals had even complained to the Lokayukta's office, and he had recommended that the authorities take immediate action. However, it has all come to naught, and the school is now parking it buses in the encroached area.
BJP leader and advocate, Vivekanand Gupta said, "A letter written by the tehsildar's Andheri office on May 16 to the BMC ward office also states that the authorities should remove the paver blocks behind the school as it is within 50 meters of the mangroves. This is a violation of high court order and we have registered complaints with BMC, MHADA and the mangroves cell, but it seems that the K-west ward office is deliberately not taking any action."