BJP MLA slams construction along Vishwamitri riverbank

VADODARA: The constructions on the bank of Vishwamitri sparked a row in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) general board meeting on Thursday. Not only the opposition, but the ruling BJP MLA and corporator Shailesh Mehta alias Sotta also raised the issue.
Mehta has been making critical remarks about the state of affairs in the civic body since Wednesday. On Wednesday, he had targeted the civic body over the issue of newly constructed residential schemes not being given water connections despite being occupied and had also raised difficult questions about town planning schemes sent by VMC to the state government not getting approved.
The discussion on Vishwamitri began with leader of opposition Chandrakant Shrivastava alias Bhattu raising the issue of how the purpose of use of green belt land along the river was changed to residential or commercial.Mehta too joined the discussion and questioned such constructions.
Mehta said that enough margin had not been left out while constructing buildings on the banks of the river. He said that this was in clear violation of rules. Mehta said that he had raised the issue even when the permissions for the buildings were given, but nothing was done by the civic body.
He also pointed out that land on the banks that was earmarked for housing schemes for the poor was shown as the location for the Swarnim Garden and then for the crocodile park.
Mehta slammed the administration saying that issues were being raised in the general board, but nothing was done regarding them. He said that the administration should look into the representations and tell the general board members if they were right or wrong.