Act against illegal structures on salt pan land: Maharashtra government to officials

There are around 200 shanties in the encroached area on the salt pan land. Pic/Sameer Markande

Environmentalist Nandkumar Pawar has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting him to instruct officials to look into the encroachment at a salt pan land in Bhandup urgently. Sources told mid-day that the state government has orally asked the concerned department to take action and is in the process of sending written directives.

On January 14, mid-day had reported how, even as the Salt department and the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government are at loggerheads over the ownership of the 102-acre land in Kanjurmarg, set aside for the mass transit project, over 200 makeshift bamboo and tarpaulin structures are coming up on another salt pan land. There are also a few brick-and-mortar units with water connections on the land.

Pawar has been raising the issue of increasing slums on salt pan land.

On January 15, Pawar wrote to Thackeray about the illegal slums at survey number 275, HEMA park, Shyam Nagar, Bhandup East. The letter states, "Despite repeated complaints about illegal landfill and subsequently illegal construction of road and shanties at the afore mentioned location, no corrective action, mitigation measures against these illegal activities has been taken. In fact, more construction debris has been dumped, more illegal shanties have come up especially during the lockdown."