Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government if it had built legally the temporary cabins at the Mumbai Badhwar park to use them as office for the proposed Shivaji Memorial statue in the Arabian Sea.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G S Kulkarni asked this from the government while hearing a plea by an NGO, the ‘Friends of Society,’ accusing the government of having built the cabins illegally in an area within Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).
The petition, filed last year, said around 1,000 square meter area where the cabins have been set up, was used by the local fishermen to park their boats during monsoon.
The court asked the government to file an affidavit within two weeks explaining if the permission from the concerned authority, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) was required for building those cabin and if yes, was it taken.
“If the permission is required but not taken, you (government) will have to demolish the structures,” the court said.
According to the petition, the cabins are being used by officials for the state government’s ambitious project to construct a 192-meter high statue of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea.
