Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has planned to file criminal cases against the Ganesh mandals, which have raised pandals illegally. The civic administration will start issuing notices to them. Till date, the PMC has sent show cause notices to five mandals across the city.
A senior official of Anti-Encroachment Department of PMC said, “The civic body has been appealing to workers of these mandals to complete formalities. Both online and offline options were given for filling the forms.”
He added, “We sent notices to five mandals. Three are from Vishrambaugwada ward office and two from Aundh-Baner area. After receiving the mandals’ replies to show cause notices, we will take action against them for erecting pandals without taking permission.”
The PMC has taken action against 9 food stalls and removed them as they were installed without permission. Two stalls are from Kasba area and one each from Sinhagad Road and Warje area.
According to PMC’s data, 2,013 mandals were granted permission for setting up pandals against applications by 2,276 mandals to corporation through online and offline process. Out of that, 287 mandals were given applications offline. Kasba-Vishrambaugwada ward office has given maximum 230 permissions to Ganesh mandals.
The number of mandals getting permissions has increased by more than 500, nearly 1,500 mandals had taken green signal from PMC last year. PMC’s Anti-Encroachment Department gives permission to these mandals. The permissions are given only if the mandals provide no-objection certificates from the Fire Department, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and the Traffic Department.
The civic administration started a new system this year: It gave permissions for Ganesh mandals one month before the Ganesh festival.
The clearances are given to set up stage, advertisement arches and banners. Permissions were also sought for putting up advertisement materials.
