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Wednesday, Dec 28, 2005

National

National

Ordinance on illegal buildings

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Government has decided to promulgate an ordinance to regularise 30,000 illegal buildings in Ulhasnagar town in Thane district, near Mumbai.

At the end of a marathon meeting, the State Cabinet decided to promulgate the ordinance to regularise the buildings in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment that 855 illegal buildings should be pulled down.

The buildings house over one lakh people.

Ulhasnagar has 42,000 buildings, of which 32,000 are illegal. A State Government spokesman said that though the buildings would be regularised, the Government would prosecute the builders who flouted development rules.

A separate body is being created to deal with the matter. The Supreme Court had recently upheld a verdict of the Mumbai High Court that the illegal buildings be demolished.

Civic authorities had started the task. But they faced stiff resistance from residents and had to give up the operation, fearing a serious law and order problem.

Now, the Government has decided to regularise not only these 855 buildings but also all illegal houses that were built till January 1, 2005. Ulhasnagar is the stronghold of Nationalist Congress Party legislator Pappu Kalani and his ex-mayor wife Jyoti.

The NCP, a coalition partner in the State Government, supports mass regularisation of the large illegal segment of the town. The spokesman said the ordinance would be sent to Governor S.M. Krishna on Wednesday for his signature and would be promulgated immediately.

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