An illegal high-rise in Shri Krishna Puri

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday told the high court that the police and district administration were not assisting it in its drive against illegal high-rises.

On behalf of PMC commissioner Kuldip Narayan, additional municipal commissioner (sanitation and planning) Shrisat Kapil Ashok filed an affidavit to this effect in the high court.

The affidavit said: “Despite repeated instructions to the officer-in-charge and other authorities, no assistance was provided to the corporation by the authorities concerned in its drive against high-rises in the city.” Notably, an annexure was filed along with the affidavit, mentioning FIRs lodged against builders in different police stations of city.

The affidavit further said that in the absence of assistance by the district administration, builders were not restraining themselves from illegal construction despite a stay in this regard by the high court.

The bench then directed the state government to reply why the authorities concerned were not providing assistance to the corporation in its drive against illegal buildings in the city.

Taking serious note of the flawed urban landscape, Patna High Court had in May 2013 directed the state government and PMC to stop construction of buildings higher than 11m unless the width of the road abutting it was at least 20ft wide, and those higher than 15m unless the width of the road abutting it was at least 40ft wide in the Patna municipal area.

A division bench comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Shivaji Pandey had passed the order.

The court had also expressed its displeasure over commercial use of residential buildings. The judges had said the principal secretary (urban development department), PMC commissioner and Patna district magistrate (DM) would be answerable for non-compliance of court order.

A PIL by Narendra Mishra had led to the order. Narendra had challenged the PMC for not taking action against construction of a 16.4m-high building near the 11-ft-wide Raiji Ki Gali in East Boring Canal Road locality.

The court then passed a general order on the PIL for future construction of multi-storied buildings and pulled up PMC authorities for allowing uncontrolled construction of such buildings.

Notably, over 450 cases of building violations are registered with the PMC. It has taken a decision in over 30 cases while reserving order in over 100 others. PMC is yet to take any action in the remaining cases.

Earlier in July, the high court had directed urban development and housing department and the PMC to file a reply stating the progress made to stop construction of unauthorised buildings in Patna.

On Sunday, PMC lodged an FIR against the builder of Brijnandan apartment near Rajapur Bridge. A PMC team had gone there on Sunday to demolish the top two floors of the apartment, built in violation of laws. However, they faced retaliation from the people there and the team had to return.

Drainage hearing

PMC on Monday submitted names of two drains — Yogipur and Saidpur — from where squatters can be removed in a time-bound manner. The high court had sought the names. PMC said it would remove squatters from Yogipur drain within a month but sought six months time to remove them from Saidpur drain. However, the court rejected PMC’s plea and felt one month was sufficient to remove the squatters. The court then directed PMC to specifically say, at its next hearing, how much time it would take to remove squatters from Saidpur drain. The case comes up for hearing on November 11.