Flat owners evicted, 8-storey building razed in Kalyan

KALYAN: A month after the Bombay high court declared Veer Heights, a ground-plus-seven storey building in Kalyan, as illegal and asked Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation to demolish it, the civic body began to raze it on Thursday despite loud protests from its residents.

Police detained some of the residents but later released them saying they must cooperate with the civic authorities. It was then that the residents began to vacate their flats and leave with their belongings. KDMC sources said approximately 200 employees of the KDMC and the fire brigade, and 60 policemen were deployed for the demolition.

The 24 families that reside in the building are now forced to seek shelter at their relatives’ homes till they make other arragements. A resident told TOI: “If the building was illegal, why did the KDMC not taken action when it was being constructed? Another said, “Most of us spent out life’s earnings to buy the flat. Several nationalized banks even gave us loans to buy the flats. How can the building be illegal?”

Several residents have questioned KDMC as to why no action was taken while the building was being constructed and why it did not put out any information in the public domain declaring it as illegal or appealed to citizens to not buy flats.

On August 23, following the high court’s August 22 order, KDMC had issued a notice to the residents, informing them that must vacate the building and either get it demolished themselves or the civic body would do so with police help. The building has a total of 49 flats and three shops, of which 24 units were sold.

The court was hearing a petition by one Dr Surekha Bhalerao who claimed the developer had illegally constructed a building on her plot in Kalyan’s Goveli area. The petition said that despite several complaints to the authorities since 2016, no action was taken and she finally filed a petition in 2017. By then, the developer had constructed the building and sold flats without even obtaining a commencement certificate. The builder claimed the area was under the gram panchayat’s jurisdiction, which was later merged with KDMC.

KDMC’s eviction deadline ended on September 8. But since the police were busy with Ganeshotsav immersion bandobast, the civic body postponed the demolition till Thursday. Shailesh Patil, ward officer of KDMC (I), said, “We are following court orders. Before demolition, we had given them time to vacate the building.” Despite several attempts, builder could not be reached. Sources said the builder plans to approach the Supreme Court.