Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to convene a meeting between the city Commissioner of Police and the BMC to address the lack of coordination during demolition drives across the city.
A Division Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.K. Menon was informed by the BMC in April that the local police had refused to provide security for an anti-encroachment drive in Tilak Nagar. The local police are expected to provide security to civic staff during demolition drives. In its affidavit, the BMC had told the court that State minister Prakash Mehta had allegedly tried to interfere and had even visited the local Tilak Nagar police station on April 15 when demolition was to be carried out.
“This cannot go on. There is a lack of coordination between the police and civic body. In such cases of demolition drives, only the local police will be aware of the troublemakers in that particular area,” the court said. The Bench was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Janhit Manch seeking that encroachments along all major water pipelines in the city must be removed considering the security threats and contamination risks.
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“This has to be sorted at a senior level. We direct the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Home department to immediately convene a meeting with the Commissioner of Police and Commissioner of BMC and work out a scheme by which proper coordination is established between the two authorities. The Additional Chief Secretary shall also lay down a protocol for all actions by the BMC in future in compliance with the HC orders in this case,” Justice Oka said.
The court had earlier directed the civic body to demolish all such encroachments along the city’s pipelines. The court directed the Additional Chief Secretary to take an appropriate decision and file an affidavit by June 22.