Dahisar NLRR forum to move court after BMC offers reserved plot to builder

Dahisar forum to move court after BMC offers reserved plot to builder

Forum alleges the land, reserved for a fire station, was offered to a builder to construct two high-rises and the fire station, when BMC could build the station themselves and use the rest of the land for public amenities

Virat A Singh virat .singh @timesgroup .com TWEETS @singhvirat246

The Times of India Mumbai Mirror 2^nd December 2013

    Members of Dahisar’s New Link Road Resident Forum (NLRRF) smell a rat in BMC’s plans to offer a plot on Link Road for commercial exploitation, when the plot had already been reserved for a fire station. What’s more, in May this year the BMC commissioner himself had revoked ane arlier plan to allocate it to a builder. Alleging that political pressure has played a part in the commissioner’s order being put on hold, the forum plans to move court in the matter.
Though earmarked for a fire station, the forum found out through an RTI in 2012, that the 5,500 sq mts plot located at Dahisar (W) Link Road near the flyover, had been allotted to M/S Malhar Realtor’s Pvt Ltd.
The developer was to construct two highrise buildings on the plot, and in return he would build the fire station.
    The forum questioned the need for BMC to dole out land to a developer, when BMC themselves could construct a fire station and use the remaining land for firemen’s quarters and other public amenities such as a market, dispensary, library, etc.
    Forum member David Soosay said, “We were shocked with the RTI result. Had the BMC become so cash strapped that they were offering a huge chunk of land in return for just a fire station?”
    “We wrote to then municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar, but nothing happened,” said Harish Pandey, another forum member.”When Sitaram Kunte took over, we followed it up with him and also wrote to MP Sanjay Nirupam.”
    After Nirupam took up the matter with Kunte, on May 28, 2013 Kunte issued orders revoking the commercial exploitation.
    However, few months later, the forum found that citing buildings that were to come up on the plot, the estate agents were offering bookings to prospective buyers at the rate of Rs 9,000 per sq ft.
    Pandey said that the forum then filed another RTI application, the results of which led them to suspect a scam. “The RTI plea revealed an extremely strange coincidence: on May 28, 2013, while Kunte revoked permission for commercial exploitation, the same day itself the BMC’s Building Proposal Dept issued an Intimation of Disapproval, which is an ‘in-principle’ approval for a proposed project, Pandey said. He alleged that the developer was using this IOD to accept bookings from buyers.
    When this was brought to Nirupam’s notice, he said, “The decision of the municipal commissioner to revoke commercial exploitation should be implemented. Instead of giving this land for high-rises, BMC should develop a fire station or even a workshop to help fire fighters. It seems there’s some kind of political pressure favouring the developer. I will meet the commissioner again and take up the issue once more.”
    When Mirror contacted Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte, he said, “The revoke orders have been put on hold as the entire proposal is being reviewed. However, no decision has been taken yet.”
    Meanwhile, the forum alleges that the incident shows how BMC is doling out reserved plots to builders in the guise of commercial exploitation.
    They now plan to move court against BMC over the issue.