Ritika
Nagpur. A public interest litigation was filed in the High Court by the Chinchmalatpure Nagar Nagrik Kriti Samiti regarding the encroachment on the open space of the layout located in Manewada. On this, the High Court issued orders on 10 February 2021, due to which the committee has now filed a contempt petition. After hearing on this on Friday, Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice GA Sanap issued notices to Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B., Pranyas Chairman Manojkumar Suryavanshi and the encroaching defendants and ordered to file a reply in 3 weeks. On behalf of the petitioner Ujjwal Fasate argued.
Failed to maintain open space
Appearing on behalf of the committee, Mr. Fasate said that the layout was prepared in Manewada, for which the layout plan was approved. As per the approved plan, 4 open spaces were marked for public use throughout the layout but the respondents failed to maintain these open spaces with the result that all these four open spaces were encroached upon. Appearing on behalf of Pranyas, Mr. Kunte believed that as per the final approval given to the layout plan, 4 open spaces have been shown. All the four marked places were being shown open. However, later an application was made to regularize the houses built by encroaching on this land, which was turned down.
….so it is the responsibility of the planning authority to remove the encroachment.
super. Fasate said that according to the Gandhewari Act, if the application for regularization is rejected, then it is the responsibility of the planning authority to remove the encroachment from such land. It was told on behalf of the defendants that the petitioners may be terming it as encroachment but it is not encroachment. Even the rejected application for regularization has been challenged.
After the arguments of both the parties, the court clarified in the order that Pranyas gave the final approval to the layout plan. These open spaces were to be retained by the planning authority until there was a change in the layout plan. The court had ordered the Municipal Corporation to take appropriate steps within 6 weeks to keep the open spaces as shown in the layout plan open. But for non-compliance of these orders, now a contempt petition was filed.
