Mumbai: A day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished unauthorised constructions at Kangana Ranaut’s office premises in Bandra’s Pali Hill, it issued a notice to fashion designer Manish Malhotra for illegal constructions and and change of use by converting residential premises into commercial in his bungalow at Pali Hill in Bandra West.
On Monday, when the BMC team had visited to check actor Kangana Ranaut’s property and few other bungalows there in the same premises on Nargis Dutt Road, it had also inspected Malhotra’s bungalow. The civic body has issued notice to Malhotra under section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 asking him to furnish documents to prove the legality of the unauthorized constructions.
The Municipal corporation has given seven days time to Malhotra to reply as per the provision in the act. “If he fails to submit the documents within seven days of the notice issued then demolition action can be initiated against the structure,” said a BMC officer.
According to the notice, Malhotra has made an unauthorized change of user from residential to the commercial office on the first floor, unauthorized addition and alteration for a cabin on the first floor, illegal construction of two structures with a brick masonry wall and AC sheet roof on the terrace of the second floor.
According to data received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, between January 2016 to July 2019, the BMC had taken action in only 10.47 per cent of the complaints of illegal constructions. The BMC received over 94,000 complaints regarding illegal constructions during that period. However, it has taken action in only over 5,400 cases.
To tackle illegal and unauthorised constructions across the city, BMC had in 2016 started Removal of Encroachment Tracking Management System (RETMS).
