For Anwar Malik (45), a resident of Rasta Peth, getting the civic body to evict encroachers from his private land has become a tedious task. Despite court notices to the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) directing it to raze the illegal structures, the civic body has done nothing beyond issuing demolition notices to the encroachers from time to timeu00a0-- since 1976. Malik's property is located behind Dorabjee Hotel. The 900 sq ft plot bearing survey numbers 787 and 788 was bought by Malik in 1974. But three families, claiming to be legal tenants, have been staying on this land, decidedly refusing to budge from there.


Still standing: An illegal structure on the plot owned by Anwar Maliku00a0
behind Dorabjee Hotel on Dastur Meher Road. Pic/Parth Satam

Malik said the PCB had itself recognised the structures as illegal. "The PCB started issuing demolition notices from 1976 and did so till 1986, but did not demolish the structures," said Malik. The issue, however, died down as Malik temporarily migrated to the Gulf for work and only returned in 2000. Malik said the PCB should have demolished the structures in the 1970's itself when the first demolition notice was issued. "My only is question is why they were contradicting themselves by only issuing notices and not acting on it, at least when the matter was not sub-judice," asked Malik.