After the 10-day Ganpati holiday is over, 141 unauthorized structures in the Palghar district’s Vasai-Virar area will be dismantled, Maharashtra Minister Ganesh Naik announced on Friday. After visiting those impacted by Wednesday’s building collapse in Virar East, which lost 17 lives, he was talking to reporters. That day at 12.05 am, the building in Vijay Nagar collapsed into a nearby vacant tenement.
“The occurrence is quite regrettable. People are compelled to occupy such illegal buildings by the conditions. In actuality, we are bearing the consequences of years of carelessness when these kinds of constructions were let to emerge unchecked,” he stated.
“Across the Vasai-Virar region, 141 unauthorized constructions have been found. All of these buildings will be destroyed following the Ganesh festival. I fully back the city commissioner’s decision to take decisive action,” Naik declared. Beginning on Ganesh Chaturthi (August 27) and concluding on Anant Chaturdashi (September 6), the festival is one of the most popular in Maharashtra.
Following the upcoming cabinet meeting, Naik promised to bring up the rehabilitation of the current occupants of these buildings with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
In order to evaluate the situation and lay out a plan to stop similar catastrophes in the future, the minister also called a high-level review meeting with elected leaders and senior authorities. Those in attendance included MLAs Sneha Pandit-Dubey and Rajan Naik, MP Hemant Savara, District Collector Indu Rani Jakhar, and Commissioner Manojkumar Suryavanshi of the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC).
In the meantime, Pandit-Dubey demanded in a statement that officials who were allegedly shielding individuals engaged in unauthorized construction face harsh consequences. “We will not put up with any illegal structures that interfere with citizens’ life. “Strict measures should be taken by the administration to prevent similar incidents in the future,” she stated.
Among other things, she called for swift action against responsible officials and the creation of specialized ward-by-ward teams to identify unauthorized structures. She claimed that certain officers had a close relationship with the land or chawl mafia and warned that if this network is not broken up, more lethal structures will be built.