Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta might have ordered officials to remove encroachments on footpaths across the city on an urgent basis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has failed to do anything in this regard, alleged BJP on Sunday.

According to Ameet Satam, BJP legislator from Andheri (W), the BMC hasn't taken any sustained action against illegal encroachments. He has even threatened that if the situation doesn't improve soon, he will construct an illegal shanty on an Andheri (W) footpath and live there.

Satam has given the civic body a list of 16 locations where encroachments have taken over the pavements, leaving no space for pedestrians to walk on. "I have been continuously complaining and pointing out these encroachments for 11 months now. There seems to be no sustained action that eliminates these shanties permanently. They come back as soon as the drive is over," Satam said in his letter to Mehta.

"If there is no visible change within the next 15 days, I will be forced to sit on a dharna," the letter added. Kishor Kumar Ganguly Marg, JP Road, Caesar Road, Versova beach, Juhu Church Road and Juhu-Versova Link Road are some of the locations mentioned in Satam's letter.

In November last year, Satam had launched a massive drive to clean up the Andheri beach. The drive included demolition of over 100 shanties and involved nearly 200 officials from various departments led by Satam. The shanties, however, returned and the same exercise had to repeated this year as well.

In an order issued last week, Mehta has asked all the 24 ward offices in the city to make the footpaths free of encroachment by unauthorised hawkers, hotels, furniture shops, among others. While launching the drive, Mehta had said that the BMC will ensure that footpaths stayed free and encroachments did not take place again. For the purpose he had even asked the officials to make a three-month rotating plan.

A senior civic official said, "We have been asked to prepare a three-month rotating plan to ensure a sustained drive. We also have to collect photographic evidence. According to the plan, we have to set a target for each month and submit a report."