Won't pay fine to BMC for digging up road: Lalbaugcha Raja trust

They allegedly drilled 953 holes into the road leading up to their pandal last year completely destroying the road in question But a year after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC slapped a fine of Rs 2356 lakh on them for lsquodefacing the roadrsquo the cashrich Lalbaug Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal which has a whopping Rs 145 crore in fixed deposits alone is yet to pay up the relatively paltry amount Worse the organisers have started digging up the road yet again this year to erect hundreds of bamboo poles for the ganeshotsav mandal in violation of BMC orders An RTI enquiry revealed that last year no permission had been sought from the BMC to construct the temporary bridge which helped devotees reach the Lalbaugcha Raja pandal in Parel PicDatta Kumbhar The Lalbaugcha Raja is Mumbairsquos mostvisited pandal during the Ganapati festival with an estimated 11 million people visiting it in 2012 In an article on December 29 2012 MiD Day had written about a notice issued by the BMC F South Ward officials to the trustees of the Ganesh Mandal for allegedly digging 953 holes on the main road and the adjoining foot path to erect a temporary bridge and passages for devotees to approach the venue for Ganpati darshan In the same notice the BMC notified the organisers about the fine being imposed on the latter for erecting temporary iron structures and a bridge on 1800 sq metres of road from Dinshaw Petit Lane in Lalbaug to GD Ambekar Marg towards Wadala Last week activist Mahesh Venurlekar who had filed an RTI with the BMC in this regard was shocked when he received a reply confirming that the Lalbaug Raja organisers were yet to pay the fine SUNDAY MiD DAY has a copy of the reply Construction has already begun at the Garam Khada maidan to welcome Lalbaugcha Rajau00a0PicDatta Kumbhar u00a0The RTI response further reveals that no permission had been sought from the BMC to construct temporary bridge in the first place making the entire construction illegal The bridge in question named Navsacha Setu was built on a portion of Vakharia BMC ground which is a reserved plot SMD has a copy of the BMC letter 100 new holes and countingu00a0 And if defaulting on a fine wasnrsquot bad enough the organisers have actually started digging fresh holes on the same roads yet again When SMD visited the site not only was work on in full swing on the reserved plot over 100 bamboo poles had already been erected in Chivda lane by digging holes in the groundu00a0ldquoWe respect the religious sentiments attached to Lalbaugcha Raja So it is twice as disheartening to find out that the trustees do not abide by the law and dig holes big enough for a person to fall and injure himself The fine is a small sum for them considering the amount they get from devotees each year The fact that they are repeating the same irregularities this year makes it a mockery of the systemrdquo said Venurlekar BMC issued a notice to the Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh Mandal last year for digging 953 holes to erect a temporary bridge for devotees to approach the venue for Ganpati darshan Pics Datta Kumbhar BMC talks tough When contacted Assistant Commissioner of F South ward Yashwant Kurade confirmed that his department will initiate legal action against the Ganapati mandal soon ldquoWe had issued a penalty notice last year but so far the trust has not paid the finerdquo he said Kurade added that BMC was now looking at legal options to recover the dues ldquoThe 953 holes for the bamboo barricade which had created many craters on the entire stretch were finally filled by the BMC last year using our own funds This year too we have not given them permission to use the ground on Dinshaw Petit Road And under no circumstances do we give permission to anyone to dig holes on the roadsrdquo he said The holes dug up by the mandal allegedly created craters on the road which were later filled by the BMC using their own funds A junior engineer of F South too confirmed that there was no question of granting permission to anyone to drill holes on roads ldquoIn the event of anyone irrespective of his social standing committing such an offence we impose penalties on the erring partyrdquo he said u00a0His colleague assistant engineer Jagdish Barapatre whose signature appears on the notice issued to the organisers last year too confirmed that no permission had been given for the use of the plot and to construct the temporary bridge ldquoWe will take action as per BMC guidelines for the violations including the illegal digging of a public roadrdquo he said An RTI filed by activist Mahesh Venurlekar revealed that the organisers of Lalbaugcha Raja havenrsquot yet paid a fine of Rs 2356 lakh slapped on them by the BMC for defacing the road We didnrsquot dig Organisers Sudhir Salvi secretary of Lalbaugcha Raja Trust had earlier said that there was a discrepancy in official figures of the BMC and their own record with regard to the number of holes But when SMD contacted him yesterday he claimed the trust had not dug any holes in the first place and so there was no question of paying any fine u00a0ldquoWe have notified the local ward on the matter and now have all necessary permissions in order for our festivities except for structure on Vakharia Ground For this too we are in touch with higher authorities in the civic body as the local ward is not authorised to give permission for the same There are no holes which we dug anywayrdquo he said But this correspondent counted over a 100 holes with several others being dug and bamboo poles being erected Are the holes being dug up by magic thenu00a0