Return all open spaces: Phatak tells Mhada CEO ………Clara Lewis I TNN
Mumbai: Nearly 20 years after it received a portion of a recreation ground, the BMC is demanding that the balance portion of the land should also be handed over.
Municipal commissioner J M Phatak, in a letter to Gautam Chatterjee, vice-president and chief executive officer of Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Mhada), has demanded not only the balance portion of the ground but also all the open spaces in Mhada layouts.
According to conditions of the layout, Mhada land which is reserved for any open space like a recreation ground (RG), playground and garden in the development plan is to be handed over by the authority to the BMC free of cost as per the directives of the state government, says the letter. Phatak immediately took up the matter when local corporator Aslam Sheikh brought it to his notice.
Chatterjee was not available for comment. In 1989, Mhada handed over 1,83,920 sq ft of landpart of its layout in Malvani to the BMC for the purpose of developing a recreation ground. It formed part of a larger reservation of recreation ground admeasuring about 3,34,490 sq feet. The civic body first wrote to Mhada officials, reminding them about handing over the plot in 2006. But nothing came of it.
The matter came to a head when Sheikh decided to develop the plot already in the BMCs possession. There is not a single playground in Malvani. It is also the second largest slum in the city, said Sheikh. In December 2008, when the BMC took up the construction of a compound wall around the plot to protect it from encroachment, a Mhada executive engineer informed BMC officials that the RG along with other lands had been handed over to the Maharashtra Police Housing Federation in 1999.
He also warned the BMC that the construction of a compound wall by the local ward office was illegal and directed that it should be stopped. Phatak, in his letter, pointed out that it was improper on the part of Mhada to hand over the RG land to the federation when the same was already handed over to the BMC in 1989. The commissioner has asked Chatterjee to ensure the possession of the 1,83,920 sq ft of land handed over to the BMC, is not disturbed and also to issue instructions so that the balance portion is handed over to the civic body.
LAND MATTERS: In 1989, Mhada had handed over 1,83,920 sq ft of land, part of its layout in Malvani, to the BMC for developing a recreation ground