Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will regulate temporary construction on public roads, footpaths and lanes leading up to shrines during festivals. The Urban Development Department (UDD) has issued a new set of guidelines to regulate construction of pandals, tents, shamianas and welcome gates.
The guidelines follow a recent order of the Aurangabad High Court taking the State government to task for haphazard erection of pandals or shamianas to organise religious functions and festivities. A similar verdict was delivered by the Bombay High Court in 2015, stating that denying permission to erect temporary pandals on roads and foothpaths is not a breach of the fundamental right to religion. The Shiv Sena had then criticised the State’s attempts to regularise erection of temporary pandals on roads and footpaths leading up to shrines.
As per the latest UDD directives, action will be taken against illegal structures under Sections 52, 54 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act. Such shamianas and structures will have to take prior no objection certificate from the Public Works Department, National Highway Authority of India and other local bodies. “The permissions will have to be obtained three months in advance while it will be the responsibility of the panning authorities to ensure structures don't obstruct movement or threaten loss of life and limb to commuters and passers-by,” said a UDD official. The new guidelines have put the onus on the applicant as well as the officials giving out the permissions. Officials found guilty of “lethargy” in giving permissions will be suspended in less than a month, officials said.
Earlier, the Shiv Sena had said people should be allowed to celebrate festivities without interference from the government. “The citizens are already suffering runaway inflation, unemployment, corruption. They have little time to be happy,” the party said in the Saamna . “They must be allowed such small pleasures.”
