Pune: Cracks in 4 houses, illegal construction to blame

PUNE: Houses of four retired police personnel have developed cracks due to an illegal construction near their homes in Pokale Mala in Kondhwa Khurd area.

After the senior citizens approached the Pune police and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities, construction was halted.
The former policemen Vilas Nivruti Kapare, Rohidas Raghoba Desai, Ramesh Murari Naik, Vithoba Shankar Sail and Ganapati Shankar Sail have approached the police. The senior citizens’ cell officials of the Pune police contacted the Pune Municipal Corporation after receiving the complaint application. Desai and the others have worked at the Pune police commissioner’s office.
Civic officials who visited the site found that the entire construction was illegal and shut down the site.
Desai told TOI, “ A few policemen and I bought the plots many years ago in Pokale Mala area. We constructed single-storeyed houses and had been living peacefully till this construction started here.”
A bungalow owner sold his plot to a builder recently and construction of a six-floor building at the site started. “The builder employed old machines at the site to dig up the land. This machine jarred the earth and due to the shocks waves, our houses developed cracks. The site was enclosed in tin sheets, and we didn’t know what was happening inside. It was like the tremors of an earthquake,” Desai said.
He said at first they requested the builder to use better equipment for the digging, but he ignored them. “Instead of arguing, we decided to approach the appropriate authorities to stop the work. The civic officials visited the site two weeks ago and realized that it was an illegal construction. They stopped the work. However, after a gap of a few days, the workers were back at the site,” he said.
He said the builder had approached them promising compensation. “He wants to re-start the construction, but we want the PMC to look into the illegal construction,” he said.