Nine galas of Siddharth Garden found illegal

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The shocking revelation on Friday was that nine galas (shops) in the shopping complex developed on a built-operate and transfer (BOT) basis at the entrance of the Siddharth Garden are found to be unauthorised. Two of these shops are constructed on the amusement park pathway. Taking serious cognizance, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) administrator G Sreekanth ordered the demolition these two shops immediately.

The CSMC, 15 years ago, leased the frontage area of the garden for 99 years to a private developer for building a commercial complex. The developer constructed 80 shops and provided a two-story parking space for the corporation. Due to internal disputes among developers, the project was delayed for many years. Recently, the project was somehow completed, but disputes among developers continued. The developers sold their shops (as per sharing) without CSMC’s permission. There are a total of 11 such shops. Some of these shops have been in use for three years without any commercial property tax payment to the municipal corporation. Hence the BOT developer has been instructed to vacate these 11 registered galas (shops).

The administrator reviewed the BOT project on Friday. The additional commissioner Ranjit Patil, city engineer A B Deshmukh, deputy commissioner Aparna Thete, garden superintendent Vijay Patil, and the BOT developers were present in the meeting. It was revealed in the meeting that two shops were built on the road leading to the amusement park, which was not included in the construction permit. Hence the orders were issued to demolish these two shops immediately.

Order to levy tax

The civic chief found nine shops built without municipal permission. Seven shops in section B and two in section C have been illegally constructed and sold through notarised agreements. Hence the administrator ordered these nine unauthorised shops to be vacated immediately. He also suggested levying property tax on the remaining shops and recovering the dues.