PUNE: Restrictions have been imposed on carrying out any property transaction in the 23 villages merged in the Pune municipal limits to check unplanned last-minute construction boom in these areas. As a part of the power transition, sarpanch and other office-bearers of these villages will have a limited say in the decision-making of these areas on administrative decisions.
According to the experts and urban planners, even the monitoring of last-minute building permissions or other approvals at the gram panchayat level should be done to avoid the approvals with malafide intentions.
Among the newly merged villages, 20 villages are from the Haveli taluka, while three are from the Mulshi taluka. “We have issued instructions for the transition of authority. The documents and other office infrastructure of district administration will now be handed over to PMC,” said Ayush Prasad, ZP CEO, told TOI.
Prasad said an audit would be conducted of the works, as well as government assets, which are to be handed over to the civic body.
“It was seen that fly-by night developers get their building permissions a the last minutes, before a village is merged in the PMC areas. Many of these plans are not sanctioned properly. This often leads to illegal and unauthorized constructions,” said Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens group.
Ujwal Keskar, a BJP leader, said a process to immediately seal the administrative offices at village level should be carried out as soon as possible. “The same formula was used in 1997, when villages were merged in the PMC limits. It had averted the lastminute intervention by the outsiders in those offices,” he said.
He said even the details of existing land use and proposed land use in these villages should be published. It will help in keeping a check on land use.
The ZP CEO said the rules pertaining to constructions as well as property tax, which are applicable to the PMC areas, will now be effective in the newly merged villages. “We are coordinating with the district officials for smoother transition of the administrative responsibilities. Same type of process was carried out in 2017 when 11 villages were merged in the civic limits,” said a senior PMC official.
As per the official, no authority at the gram panchayat level can intervene in the decision-making of PMC. The elected representatives, such as sarpanch or zilla parishad members of the merged areas, will now be only the former elected representatives.
