Bombay HC scolds BMC for razing small platform in housing society

The BMC goes after small things while ignoring big concerns, said the Bombay high court on Thursday as it rapped the municipal corporation for wanting to demolish a small platform on which a generator is placed in a highrise in Wadala (east). The court heard a petition by Wadala Heights Cooperative Housing Society, which comprises two wings with 32 floors each and 240 flats. Its petition stated that on June 14, 2016, with government permission, a diesel generator was installed on a cement platform “some four to five inches from the ground” for the lifts. On July 21, 2016, the FNorth ward office issued a stop-work notice for the construction and a week later rejected the society explanation. The society moved the high court, which stayed the notice on August 2, 2016. Society advocate Rajeev Panday said to a bench of Justice Shahrukh Kathawalla and Justice Burgess Colabawalla that “it is just a threeinch concrete platform to keep the generator and BMC has issued notice for illegal construction”. The BMC advocate said it was not in the sanctioned plan and that the society should get it regularised. “This is ridiculous. Small things you’ll (BMC) go after, big things you leave,” Justice Colabawalla said.