Pune police chief urges builders to file complaints if threatened by local labour “unions”

Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta has urged builders in the city to come forward to file complaints against labourers, known locally as “mathadis”, i.e. labourers involved in lifting and loading consignments if harassed by them in any away.

Gupta spoke at the special general body meeting of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) - Pune Metro on Friday.

The association had sought help from the city police regarding threats from workers who coerced them into giving work.

Gupta said, “There have been complaints against certain groups of people who have been harassing builders over random issues. We urge developers to co-operate with the police and file a complaint so we can take it forward and take action against such groups.”

Gupta was attending a meeting wherein builders raised the issue of being coerced into giving work to a certain group of workers in various places.

Suhas Merchant, president of Credai Pune said, “We have had multiple instances which were also reported even before the lockdown. There are groups of workers who enter the building premises and force builders to give them work despite the fact that the builders have their own head loaders and masons. These people come in specifically when the material is being loaded or unloaded and force them to give them work which is causing us trouble, we raised this issue with the commissioner who promised support.”

Gupta who assured action against such offenders said, “We have an Economic Offences Wing (EOW) where developers can send their complaints online. We also want them to install CCTV cameras in all residential societies to ward off anti-social elements. There are already over 10,000 cameras in the city and we are planning to add 14,000 more. It will also help us tackle the issue of accidents on sites and make investigations easier. I also urge developers to take proper precautions and install warning signals at construction sites to prevent accidents. I want to make Pune a safe city for all.”

Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) CEO and commissioner Suhas Diwase said that the PMRDA will have a crucial role to play in the coming years as the town planning will have to be done at a micro-level.

“Sustainability of the resources will be the key and while making residential and industrial townships, we’ll have to focus on the issues of water, drainage, and solid waste management in each region. I urge CREDAI members to come up with schemes and implement new ideas to work on these issues,” he said.

Diwase and members of Credai-Pune Metro including secretary Aditya Javdekar among others were present during the interaction.