The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has come under scrutiny for failing to follow the 2018 notification issued by the Urban Development Department (UDD). This notification required CIDCO to make public a list of illegal buildings and encroachments under its jurisdiction. However, a Right to Information (RTI) report has revealed that CIDCO did not comply with this crucial requirement.
The RTI was filed by a Navi Mumbai social activist, Mangesh Mhatre on 31 July. He sought access to weblinks listing the number of illegal structures in CIDCO's jurisdiction. CIDCO's response to the RTI, addressed on August 21, 2023, said that it had no such provisions.
The UDD issued a six-point directive on May 3, 2018 to protect the public from being deceived by illegal construction. Point 2 of these directives specifically mandated local governing authorities, including CIDCO, to disclose information about illegal constructions on their official websites and in publications.
It should be noted that Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has the list on its website, but it was last updated in 2015. Furthermore, CIDCO has not even responded to a separate RTI request seeking node-level information on unauthorised buildings made in July.
Estimates suggest that CIDCO may have more than 400 hectares of land under encroachment. The non-disclosure of this information could have significant financial implications. It can cause loss to the government's treasury.
In a report by HT, Sanjay Jadhav, the controller of unauthorised construction (CUCC) at CIDCO, stated that the list of unauthorised structures is published every third month in newspapers.
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