BMC officials to face music for letting illegal cell towers come up - Daily News & Analysis

Minister of state for Urban Development Bhaskar Jadhav on Tuesday said 1,830 of 3,705 mobile towers in the city were unauthorised. The towers had only got permission from the Department of Telecom (DOT) but not from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The civic body had conducted a survey on the city's mobile towers in 2011. Responding to a calling attention motion by MLC Prakash Binsale in the Legislative Council, Jadhav assured the House that action would be taken against BMC officials, who allowed the towers to come up. After repeated demands by MLCs for action against illegal mobile towers, Jadhav said the state government would consider discontinuing power supply to the unauthorised mobile towers. Jadhav said that while the Centre has a policy on mobile towers, the state government and municipal bodies do not. The state government's draft policy is being prepared and separate policies for municipal corporations and councils will be announced soon. He told the House that the policy framed by the Centre, which would be used as a guideline for the state policy, says that there should be 35 metres space between two towers and 45 metres between four towers. After the BMC started taking action against the unauthorised towers, the telecom companies approached the Bombay high court and got a stay order in October 2011. "We admit that BMC officials were responsible for this. These 1,830 towers did not come up overnight. The civic officials failed to stop them," Jadhav said. While Binsale expressed concern over the health hazards posed by mobile towers, Jadhav said there were contradicting opinions on it. Jadhav said a research on the health hazard caused by radiation from mobile towers had not reached any conclusion. He added that the government will take a legal opinion and cut off the power supply if possible in view of the high court's  stay on action against mobile towers. sanjeev.devasia@dnaindia.net @sanjeevdevasia via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF6M8qArQxbRTKhf-0OZOd73tKrWA&url=http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1818285/report-bmc-officials-to-face-music-for-letting-illegal-cell-towers-come-up

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