Following mid-day's report about the illegal store below the collapsed Himalaya Bridge, BMC orders action
R B Snacks had permission to sell paan-beedi and cold drinks but was selling fast food from dosa to pizza
Weeks after mid-day reported about a snack corner allegedly functioning without proper civic permissions under the Himalaya Bridge at CSMT, the BMC has issued a notice to it, asking the owner of the stall to remove the encroachment and illegal construction. The notice, sent on Wednesday, (mid-day has a copy) has given the owner of the stall, from where R B Snacks functions, 48 hours to do away with the structure, failing which BMC would initiate further action.
On August 2, mid-day reported in 'Paan intended' that despite having permission to sell only paan-beedi and cold drinks, R B Snacks was selling fast food ranging from dosa to pizza. On August 14, BMC issued a notice to the owner of the stall under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act. In the notice, BMC has given the stall owner 48 hours to remove the encroached, illegal structure on their own, failing which the civic body will initiate further action. The notice was issued by the A ward's assistant engineer Sachin G Kakade. Despite repeated attempts, he remained unavailable for comment.
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The alleged encroachment and irregularities of the stall, located beneath the now collapsed Himalaya foot overbridge in CST, were discovered through the response to a Right to Information query filed by RTI activist Sanjay Gurav on June 13. BMC had informed him that the structure is supposed to operate as a paan and cold drinks joint. While the structure is in the name of one Sunil Durgawale, his maternal aunt Aruna Bavkar is responsible for the administrative operations. Bavkar told mid-day, "The person who operates the snack corner informed us that the civic body is likely to issue a notice. I am unaware of whether or not BMC has done this already as I could not step out of the house because of the rains."
Meanwhile, Ravi Chavan, who helps his son with the day-to-day operations of the stall, admitted to receiving the notice. However, he refuted the claims about the structure being illegal. "We have all the documents in place to substantiate our claims. We have replied to the BMC notice accordingly," he told mid-day. In mid-day's previous report, Bavkar had mentioned that the stall was originally in her father's name. After his death, she and her siblings were managing the paan-beedi shop. But they had to stop that business after a rule prohibiting the sale of paan-beedi within 100 metres of educational institutes was implemented, as the structure is a stone's throw away from the Anjuman-I-Islam educational institute. Following this, the place was turned into snack corner.
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