BMC serves demolition notice on Thackeray Sena corporator's Dindoshi house, date set for November 3

Trouble has deepened for Tulsiram Shinde, a corporator of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) in Mumbai. He represents Ward 40 in Goregaon. A complaint had been made that his house in the Santosh Nagar area of Dindoshi is unauthorised. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now set to send a bulldozer to the house.

Shinde is accused of illegally constructing a structure taller than 14 feet in a slum rehabilitation area. The BMC has sent him a notice of action and fixed November 3 as the date for pulling the house down.

The complaint was submitted to the BMC in writing by Sanjay Awhad, the BJP candidate from Ward 40. He says Shinde broke the rules and built a house taller than 14 feet in Santosh Nagar, in the Dindoshi municipal colony. Awhad has alleged directly that Shinde misused his position as corporator to put up the unauthorised construction.

Taking the complaint seriously, the BMC has issued a notice for demolition action against the corporator's house on November 3. Additional police deployment has also been sought for security.

On receiving the notice, Shinde had himself vacated the house and begun demolishing it. But tension flared at the spot. The sons of Sanjay Awhad, the BJP leader who filed the complaint, arrived and stopped Tulsiram Shinde from demolishing his own house.

Police were called to intervene, and the corporator was stopped from pulling down his house. The complainant has taken a hard line. He demands that the corporator not carry out the demolition himself, and that the Mumbai municipal corporation itself take the action directly with a bulldozer.

Shinde has given his explanation on the action. He said, "This house is old, from the 1980-1985 period. In the whole of Dindoshi there are about 4 to 5 thousand houses as tall as mine. Action is being taken only against me because of political vendetta. If the corporation is pointing to the rules, let it take equal action against all those 4 to 5 thousand houses in the area as well." This is the demand Shinde has made.