Curation Team
PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will pull down 36 unauthorised bungalows of River Villa project located within the blue flood line zone of the Indrayani river at Chikhali on Saturday as the final attempt made by the owners to seek an interim stay from Bombay high court on Friday failed.
Their petition sought a re-demarcation of the flood line and a direction to the civic body not to take any coercive action against any structures until then.
“Though the court provided us with an opportunity for an urgent hearing, it refused to pass any interim order to stay the demolition. However, our civil writ is not yet dismissed by the court; it will be heard on June 9,” said advocates Yogendra Kumar and Arun Longani, who appeared for the owners.
The lawyers claimed that the land purchased by the residents and the sale deeds were legal and there was only a dispute about the constructions. The owners have already given an undertaking to PCMC stating that they will themselves raze the structures if they come in the blue flood line after the re-demarcation is completed, or they will close the premises and hand over the keys to PCMC till a new line is decided, the lawyers said.
The Supreme Court on May 5 dismissed a civil appeal filed by the developer, which sought a stay on the demolition.
Residents claimed that they were informed by the developer that their plots were in a residential zone. “We were given water and power connections by the corporation. If the constructions were illegal, it should have objected when the houses were being built. We spent our hard-earned money to build these bungalows,” one of the owners said.
On July 1 last year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed PCMC to demolish 29 bungalows and other illegal establishments within six months and recover Rs5 crore in environmental damage compensation from the property owners. However, later, the apex court told the civic body to halt its proposed action until the appeal against the NGT order was decided.
A civic official told TOI that preparations are complete. “There are 36 bungalows in all, including the 29 whose owners challenged the demolition in the SC. Notices for evacuation have already been served, and their water and electricity supply have been disconnected,” he said. Teams are currently making public announcements in the area, requesting residents to vacate the structures as the demolition will begin on Saturday morning, he said.
Residents purchased the plots in 2021, and many of them completed the constructions in the last two to three years and shifted.
According to civic officials, there was no deadline to carry out the action as the Supreme Court in its latest order did not mention any specific date. “However, as per the SC guidelines, demolition against residential structures cannot be taken up during the monsoon, which starts after June 1,” another civic official said.
