The Centre is said to have made up its mind to demolish the complete structure of the Adarsh Housing Society building located in a plush area of Mumbai, expectedly after December 15.
Highly placed sources in the government on Friday gave a clear indication in this regard.
The housing society, which was originally meant to be a six-storey structure was later extended to 31 floors allegedly without mandatory permission.
“This is an illegal structure and thus will be demolished completely,” the sources said. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, a few days back, had blamed “systemic failure” at the local level for the construction of the 31-storey structure and gave the Adarsh society three weeks to explain why bulldozers should not be sent in.
He had also said that it was abundantly clear that the society had no permission to build any structure on that land and “we don’t need a CBI inquiry to tell us that the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act has been violated or not”.
Members of the housing society have already approached the Bombay high court challenging the cancellation of occupation certificate and cut in electricity and water supplies.
If Mr Ashok Chavan lost his chief ministership for allegedly favouring his relatives to get flats in this society, several people who had hold important positions in the government and the Army, besides some senior Congress leaders, have been facing the similar charge. Some of them have said they would return the flats.
Meanwhile, the environment ministry slapped a showcause notice to Pune’s Lavasa Corporation for carrying out construction activities without its approval in 25,000 hectares.
The ministry has given 15 days time to the corporation asking why unauthorised structures erected by it without any environmental clearance between March 2003 to September 2006 in Mulshi and Velhe Talukas in Pune should not be demolished in its entirety.
The constructions, it said, were in violation of the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. The notice issued on Thursday has also asked the project proponent not to carry out any construction and development activities till its reply in the matter.