CIDCO officers caught in another Land Scam

A new land scam has come to light in CIDCO.Land officers in collusion with Lakshman Tandel,a farmer,forged documents to show that he was dead.,thereby getting a plot for each of his legal heirs under the 12.5% scheme of CIDCO.The plots were in Sector44,Seawoods.

The CIDCO officers are Anant Mathuram Dalvi (retired special land acquisition officer),Sheela Moreshwar Joshi (retired land survey officer from CIDCO),Ramesh Sonawane (current land survey officer,CIDCO),Dayanand Tandel (CIDCO clerk),the farmer Mr.Kunda,his wife,sons and married daughters.The case relates to the year 1989 and the case was registered in Belapur Police station.
Social activist Sandeep Thakur was the force behind this prosecution.

Ward officers to be responsible for illegal constructions in Navi Mumbai

The NMMC Commissioner,Mr.Bhaskar Wankhede has ratified a proposal to hold the ward officers responsible for illegal constructions in their respective wards.This change was notified via a gazette around 8 days ago.
It was noticed that despite complaints,the illegal constructions continued as the ward officers failed to followup on the notices served.Henceforth,all complaints about illegal constructions would be the responsibility of the ward officer.
Mr.Wankhede also submitted that the responsibility to clear the illegal constructions was that of CIDCO and that NMMC only plays a supporting role.

Sand Mafia to face MCOCA charge

River dredging

The blatant illegal sand mining in the creeks around Mumbai and its suburbs was the topic of heated debate between the opposition and the revenue department.Minister of state for revenue,Prakash Solanke announced that the people involved will face the stringent MCOCA.
Jitendra Avhad of the NCP had brought up the issue of mining in the Thane creek.He said that the blatant mining had put various bridges at risk.,often with the connivance of the Revenue officials.
Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat claimed that more than 700 people had been arrested for sand mining.74 cases were registered in Thane alone.
Mr.Avhad claimed that dredging was being done at night with the connivance of police and revenue officials.

Related articles

• NALSA to move SC against sand mining (thehindu.com)
• Sand-mining sound the death knell for the Bharathapuzha (thehindu.com)

Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Bill-2012 passed

The long awaited \’tough\’ Maharashtra Housing Bill was finally passed by the Maharashtra Assembly on 16th July,2012.The law aims to plug the loopholes in the previous law, namely, Maharashtra Ownership of Flats act-1963.The new bill retains most of the contents of MOFA, but contains additional \’tough\’ provisions.
A joint select committee had submitted a report last week, recommending 26 amendments to the originally conceived bill after a public uproar over the \’mild\’ provisions in the earlier draft. After a lot of opposition from the public, the committee was forced to accept the changes as suggested by the people who have been at the receiving end since independence.

This law proposes for the first time…..

1. Formation of a regulatory authority for the housing sector.
2. Registration of all builders/developers with a 3 member regulatory authority headed by a retired govt official of the rank of Principal secretary.
3. Developers will have to post complete details of their project on the govt website.
4. Developers cannot sell 10% of the built up area until an occupancy certificate is obtained.
5. 60% of society members can come together and apply for deemed conveyance.
6. Developers have to seek the society members consent before modifying any plans and amenities.
7. Open spaces can be reserved only after getting local authorities permission.
8. Advertisements and brochures can only be issued after acquiring a registration code from the authority.
9. If developer fails to keep his commitments,flat buyers can approach the authority,which can impose a 10 lakh fine and a 3 year jail sentence.
10. Defect liability period of 5 years,during which he will be liable for any structural defects/exterior flaws like cracks etc.
11. Power to debar the builder and prevent him from taking up any new projects.
12. The authority will also decide in case the buyer defaults on payments.

The orders of the authority can be challenged before an appellate tribunal which will be headed by a retired high court judge.

Now for the bad news….

It will take another year for the full implementation of this law. It now goes to the president for her assent and after that it will take another 6 months to frame the \’business\’ rules.

Noose tightens around Hiranandani Powai

A special judge has observed that there is a case against Hiranandani constructions for blatant violations in its Powai project. The court also directed the Anti Corruption bureau to investigate the matter and file a report. Along with Hiranandani there are also a few bureaucrats who face the axe. Among them Mr.Thomas Benjamin, a secretary in the Urban Development Department. Mr.Benjamin had curiously levied a Rs 3 crore fine on Hiranandani for the violations, which range into a few thousand crores at least. Some estimates put the scam value at Rs 50,000 crores.

The reason that Mr.Benjamin gave was even more curious than the fine. He said that the figure was arrived after referring to the previous decisions of MMRDA and the Govt.

Most people who live in Hiranandani complex do not know that their glitzy apartments worth a few crores were supposed to be part of the Powai Housing Development scheme for economically weaker sections of society.

The scheme was announced in 1977 and was supposed to cover the villages of Powai, Kopri and Tirandaz, an area of 140 hectares. The state gave Mr.Hiranandani 230 acres at a Rs.1 per hectare as Mr.Hiranandani was supposedly going to build \’affordable\’ housing for the economically weaker section.

The contract between Mr.Hiranandani, the state and MMRDA was for 10 years during which not only did Mr.Hiranandani not build \’affordable\’ housing but also failed to handover 15% of the residential units to the government, as was stated in the contract.

As a reward for his \’excellence\’, neither the MMRDA or the BMC took any punitive action against Mr.Hiranandani.
In the end, as a token of his appreciation, Mr.Thomas Benjamin slapped a fine of Rs 3 crore and decided that it was enough.

Another day, another scam in the great nation of India.

UPDATE : 4^th March 2021

Mumbai: Bombay High Court directed a committee to find out how many flats were constructed by Hiranandani Group in the Powai Area Development Scheme after its 2017 order allowing it time to complete the constructions.
The order by a bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni was passed on Hiranandani’s application to extend timelines given to it in October 2017 to complete construction of four wings of Castle Rock, five wings of Regent Hill, three wings of Atlantis and two buildings —Sorrento and Maple.

In February 2012, on a PIL, the high court had directed Hiranandani to construct 1,511 flats of 40 sq mts (430 sq ft) and 1,593 flats of 80 sq mts (861) sq ft before undertaking any other construction.

The PIL by activists Kamlakar Satve, Rajendra Thacker and Medha Patkar said Hiranandani had signed a lease for 230 acres of land in 1986 in a tripartite agreement with the state and MMRDA to build affordable housing. The petitioners, however, alleged that the flats were merged into sprawling 4,000-5,000 sq ft apartments and sold at premium rates.
On the developer’s application, the HC in October 2017 had granted time till June 2021 to complete the construction. It had also set up a committee to verify the developer’s claim. The builder has sought that the delay be condoned and further extension of timelines ranging from January 2022 till June 2023 be granted. It cited Covid-19 for the delay.

Also read…

Senior IAS officer under ACB Lens in Hiranandani Scam