BMC demolishes `illegal' structures outside Bandra station; Sena (UBT) claims its branch office razed

The Mumbai civic body on Thursday demolished a few allegedly unauthorized structures on the eastern side of the Bandra railway station.But the Shiv Sena UBT claimed that its 40-year-old shakha -- as the Shiv Senas local branches are known -- was among the structures razed.

The Mumbai civic body on Thursday demolished a few allegedly unauthorized structures on the eastern side of the Bandra railway station.

But the Shiv Sena (UBT) claimed that its 40-year-old `shakha' -- as the Shiv Sena's local branches are known -- was among the structures razed. A senior officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told PTI that a few shanties, an auto rickshaw union office and two libraries were pulled down.

The traffic police had requested the civic body to demolish these “temporary” structures to streamline the vehicular movement outside the busy railway station, she said. ''I strongly deplore this action by the BMC. The `shakha' existed for more than 40 years. We have regularised structures that have come up after 2015, 2020. How come the shakha was demolished without giving any proper notice,'' asked Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant.

The BMC officer, however, denied the claim that a Sena shakha was among the demolished structures.