Mumbai: Juhu VIPs must clear pavements today

BMC serves notices to 61 celebrities, including Anil Kapoor, Hema Malini, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha; will send demolition squad tomorrow.

A week after Mirror first reported about prominent people in Juhu encroaching footpaths outside their sprawling bungalows, 61 of them have received notices from the BMC asking them to demolish the structures themselves or face civic action. The list of recipients includes actors Jeetendra, Anil Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha and Hema Malini. Builders Vicky Oberoi, Praveen Agarwal and businessman Sumit Singh are also on the list.

According to the BMC, the drive to make Juhu’s pavements pedestrianfriendly started on August 6. The residents, however, received notices on August 18 and August 20, after this newspaper extensively reported on the issue on August 16-17. As per the notice, the residents must clear their pavements by today, failing which the BMC will begin its demolition drive tomorrow.

“Last week, we carried out an inspection of the JVPD scheme. The defaulters were served notices,” informed K-West ward officer Prashant Gaikwad, adding that action would be taken irrespective of their social standing. “We need to send out the message that all citizens are the same in the eyes of law,” he said.

During a recce on Tuesday, Mirror discovered that the pavements were clearer than last week. While some of the recipients of the notices had already removed the structures, BMC sources said that the aides of actors Jeetendra and Anil Kapoor had allegedly approached the civic body with the request of letting the structures stay. When contacted by Mirror, the managers of both the actors said the structures will be removed if the government finds them illegal.

Businessman Sumit Singh’s manager Deepak Kirtane assured the removal of all plants outside his bungalow Sneh. “We have already called for a crane and other equipment as the plants are tall. The removal will be done by Wednesday,” he said.