Kolhapur: After corporators of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) kicked up a storm in the general body meeting of the civic administration on Thursday, civic chief Abhijeet Chaudhari initiated the process of taking possession of the plots in the Tawade Hotel area and file police complaints against those carrying out illegal constructions.The state government has ordered Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) to temporarily halt the demolition of 19 illegal constructions in the area. Corporators said such directions are illegal as the Bombay high court has already lifted the protection to these illegal buildings only after which KMC had decided to demolish them.In the letter asking the civic body not to take any action, the state government has written that a competent authority has not scrutinised the number of illegal buildings or the status of legality of the buildings. However, the government has not made it clear as to who is the competent authority. When corporators asked the civic chief whether KMC is a competent authority or not, Chaudhari said he cannot say much over what the government has written in the letter but mentioned that KMC has the authority to act against illegal constructions.NCP corporator Jayant Patil said, “These constructions cannot be regularised as they are constructed on reserved plots. KMC has won every legal battle against illegal constructions. We want to know whether KMC is bound to follow the orders of the state government which according to us is totally illegal. The government was the one which gave an affidavit in the high court stating that the area comes under the jurisdiction of KMC.”Congress corporator Bhupal Shete said, “The owners, whose plots have already been reserved, have sold the land to KMC in lieu of the transfer development rights (TDR). The plots need to be taken into possession and developed as per the plan.”Recently, revenue minister Chandrakant Patil, who attended the meeting between the civic authorities and the state government at Mumbai last week, stated that as per the government's law, the buildings can be regulated. Corporators said the regularisation of the buildings with minor modifications can be done but buildings constructed on the reserved plots cannot.Civic chief Chaudhari said, “I am bound by the state government’s order. We will provide the facts to the government. We have already given the report of the illegal constructions to the district administration. In the case of possession, I am ordering the town planning department to initiate the process and also file FIR against those carrying out illegal constructions even after issuing the notice.”

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