Letter to Municipal Commissioner regarding encroachments on roads by Ganpati Mandals

       ALERT CITIZENS FORUM OF INDIA
A7/303, Saket CHSL, Saket Marg, Thane (West ), 400601. # 8879528575.


August 28, 2015

The Hon. Municipal Commissioner,
Thane Municipal Corporation,
Thane.

CC: The DCP Traffic,
Thane City.

CC: Shri Sanjay Kelkar, MLA

Dear Sir,

The Bombay High Court today slammed organisations and persons putting up pandals on public roads during Ganesh Utsavs, Navratri and other festivals and said "these pandals are just extorting money."

"In principle we are against all this. We are of the opinion that Ganesh Utsavs, Navratri and other festivals that are celebrated in open spaces of the city should be stopped. Who is benefiting? These pandals are just extorting money," a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said.

The remarks were made by the court while hearing two petitions. One had been filed by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) seeking permission to hold their annual Jagannath Rath Yatra and the second on the issue of use of loudspeakers during festivals.

"Is it impossible to have these festivals without loudspeakers? We are against this. Already there are so few open spaces left in this city," the court said.

In this connection we would like to point out that there are over 100 such Mandals who encroach on roads in Thane and make movement of traffic miserable during the festive season.
Mandals in Pachpakhadi and other parts of Thane encroach over 80 % of the roads. 
The municipality levies a nominal fine which the Mandals pay. 
Apart from causing traffic jam the encroachment also leads to damaging the roads due to digging and thus wasting public money. The loud noise during the festivals is unbearable for ailing residents.
These mandals are patronized by politicians who are harassing the common man under the garb of " nurturing our tradition".
We request you, in light of the High Court's observations, to take stringent action against all mandals encroaching on more than 50 % of the roads by either demolishing the pandals and / or levying a deterrent fine of ₹ 1 lakhs as penalty.
The festive season is approaching and an early action would be appreciated.

Regards,

For ALERT CITIZENS FORUM OF INDIA,

Dayanand Nene
President

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