Raze weather sheds, fine defaulters: Civic chief

THANE: Fed up with the delay in the removal of weather sheds across the city, municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, in a meeting on Monday, instructed the anti-encroachment department to pull down these structures at the earliest and take strict action against defaulters.
Every year, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) gives out permissions to citizens and institutions to put up weather sheds or asbestos sheets above their roofs or outside their windows during monsoon at a price of Rs 5,000 provided they remove it soon after.

“The permissions to put up these structures are only for four months according to a 2011 circular. While this period is now complete, thousands of residential, educational and commercial buildings across the city seem to have failed to remove these now illegal structures. The civic chief has asked us to ensure that all these weather sheds are pulled down,” said Ashok Burpulle, head of TMC’s anti-encroachment department.

In addition to instructing the department to bring down these structures at the earliest, Jaiswal has also asked officials to collect a penalty of Rs 5,000 per month from defaulters.

“If a citizen or institution has kept the rain protection or weather shed for a month over the prescribed four-month period, he will be charged a fine of Rs 5,000. If he has kept it for two months beyond the four-month limit, it will cost him Rs 10,000. If any citizen or institution has put up this illegal shelter without civic permission, they will be charged the initial fee of Rs 5,000 in addition to the penalties,” added Burpulle.

The department has already started the process of removing these constructions and collecting fine from defaulters.

“While some have removed these structures in time, there are thousands who haven’t done so yet. We are hoping to cover the entire city at the earliest,” he said.