Of 25 restaurants in the area, 19 found to be violating norms

Continuing its drive against illegal pubs and eateries in Bandra, the BMC yesterday razed down illegally extended structures of 19 Carter Road restaurants that encroached upon its open spaces and allegedly troubled local residents.

The civic body and the police had asked the residents' associations of Bandra to submit the report against pubs and eateries that were causing trouble. After the associations submitted their reports, the civic body issued show cause notice to more than 20 restaurants and pubs in the area and eventually demolished illegal structures of 19 of them.


BMC officials bulldozed illegally extended structures in Carter Road, Bandra, yesterday

Mahendra Sawant, an official of the BMC's building and factory department, confirmed the development. "We had issued notices to these eateries last week. Initially, they had got a stay order from the Bombay High Court, but the court withdrew its directive within a few days.
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So we decided to demolish the illegal structures developed by these outlets." Sawant added that eateries in question had encroached upon the open spaces in violation of the BMC norms.
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"The eateries were found violating the provisions of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act for unlawfully extending and altering their premises. We are going to collect demolition charges from the eateries," the official said.
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This is not the first time that Carter Road restaurants are facing the heat. In July 2010, the Bandra police had forced more than 20 eateries in the same area to shut shop for three days as they were operating without a required licence.

In a reply to RTI applications filed by the Union Park Residents' Association, it was revealed that of the 25 eateries operating on Govind Ghag Marg off Carter Road at least 20 were functioning illegally.

"Better late than never. We are happy that the BMC has finally taken action against these unruly restaurants," said Bharati Kakkad, a member of the residents' association.

'Avoidable'

However, Shashi Puri, the owner of Kareem's restaurant who also represents the Carter Road Restaurant and Eateries' Association, said the demolition could have been avoided had BMC given them enough time to rectify the errors.

"The BMC demolished whatever little beautification that we had done to attract customers. This could have been avoided. But unfortunately the civic body never gave us much time to rectify the errors. We (restaurant owners) are going to meet tomorrow. We will also discuss the issue with BMC officials."

Violations
RTI applications filed by residents revealed that most eateries/ restaurants/ commercial establishments in the area are guilty of violating one or more of the following norms:
i) Running without a valid licence
ii) Functioning beyond the scope of the licence
iii) Covering compulsory open compound area without permission
iv) Serving alcohol /drugs to customer in parked cars
v) No adherence to fire safety norms