Sky Properties Real Estate

CIDCO land official murdered

The body of Atul Mhatre, aged 35 years, was found in a village near Panvel on Sunday. Mhatre was murdered with a knife or sharp weapon. Mhatre was employed in the rehabilitation and property dept of CIDCO\’s belapur office. He was last seen at Belapur on Friday evening while returning home to Uran. His car was later found abandoned on Uran-Panvel road.
It may help to know that Mhatre was employed with CIDCO for the past 15 years and was recently transferred to the property dept where he was assigned to rehabilitate villagers in Kamothe under the 12.5% gaothan scheme. His body had 42 injuries from a sharp weapon and he was tortured before his killing. Atul used to work as a clerk in the land section of CIDCO.
According to his family, Atul was recently involved in the selling of a plot of land owned by his distant relative to a builder in Navi Mumbai. The price of the land was initially fixed at 25 lakhs but Atul had asked the builder to pay over Rs.1 crore based on the current market rate of the land.
Update:
Four people including a real estate agent by the name of Prem patil have been arrested for th e murder of Atul Mhatre. Patil said that he had paid Atul 3 lakh rupees to allot a plot of land to his client under the 12.5% Gaothan scheme.
(Readers should know that 12.5% gaothan scheme is a scheme whereby the original inhabitants of Navi Mumbai are allotted land in return for the farmland they surrendered to the govt. Recent past has seen a lot of scams wherein CIDCO officials in collusion with villagers, conspire with the help of fake documents to get land allotted in their name.)
When Atul Mhatre asked for 20 lakhs, Patil plotted the murder of Mhatre along with his friends-Nitin Bhoir (23), Andy Cruz (27) and Kunal Salunke (25).Patil allegedly paid Cruz 1 lakh rupees as a supari.
This along with previous incidents of corruption in the lands section of CIDCO shows that officials working in the dept are more of agents and less of govt employees. Some of them are rumored to have earned 100\’s of crores by mediating in land deals between builders and gaonwalas. One only has to visit the CIDCO office in Belapur to see the rampant goondagiri of agents and officials in the office. How many more cases like this the govt needs to wake up is anybody\’s guess.

Largest land owners of Mumbai

Throughout human history, land has always been synonymous with power. Mongol empire, considered the greatest empire in human history, covered an area of 24,000,000 km²(16% of earth’s total land area) at its greatest extent. Ones with bigger territories are the biggest kings.

If you’ve ever wondered who the kings of Mumbai are, read on !

Colonial Era kings

The roots of our story date back to the British Era where land was gifted as a reward for ‘loyalty’ to attract people. Parsis, who were mainly the traders and middlemen at that time, had acquired large profits from this generosity and through canny investments in real estate market they accumulated large amounts of assets which were passed on through generations till today. Presently Mumbai is the most populous city in India and the fourth most populous in the World with an average density of 20,694/km². For Mumbaikars, the quest for a roof on top of their heads is never ending. But there are a few fortunate families with considerably large chunks of this golden cake in their pockets acquired hereditarily. Research shows that most of these gold-plated chunks are not quite yielding under the pressure of land mafias and encroachment. Though some trusts have gained profits from owned lands, many families have lost their valuable land under the Coastal Regulation Zone.

Privately owned land in Mumbai

Of 99,319 acres of Mumbai almost 7000 acres are owned by Mumbai’s top 10 private families/trusts, as estimated by Economic Times. Collectively, 21 largest private bodies of Mumbai own about 10% of the total city.

Godrej Industries Pvt. Ltd. is the largest private single landholder in Mumbai today with holdings of nearly 2,000 acres of mangroves at Vikhroli on the east of the Eastern Express Highway. It established itself in real estate as Godrej Properties Ltd. in 1990 and has undertaken many constructions in more than 12 cities in India. In Mumbai, they have taken up many successful projects including Godrej Platinum at Vikhroli East close to their mangroves. However, Godrej is fighting to claim the title of the land in court since mid-70’s. Even if Godrej wins the case, a considerable part of it, which is along the Thane creek, falls under the CRZ and cannot be developed upon.Godrej Industries Pvt. Ltd. – Largest private single landholder in Mumbai
Next is FE Dinshaw estate. Framroze Edulji Dinshaw was the son of a Karachi landowner and most prominent businessmen of his times. He took over his father’s assets in Mumbai and expanded for his next generations. By 2002, FE Dinshaw estate was the largest privately owned land in Mumbai with 2,200 acres of western suburbs between Malad and Borivali. The FE Dinshaw Charities trust, founded after he died in 1936, holds another 278 acres mainly in Malad. However, a lot of its land has fallen prey to encroachment and land mafias.
Another classic example of British generosity is the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Properties Limited, which is the 5th largest landholder in Mumbai. Sir Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, a 19th century philanthropist, was gifted by East India Company a total of 12,000 acres of land between Bandra and Borivali in 1830. Over the past 40 years huge tracts of his land are sold off to builders or gave up to the government for infrastructure development.
Others include A.H.Wadia trust and builders like the Ajmeras, the Hiranandanis and the Rahejas.

JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust)

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is the unanimous topper of the public land holding lists with 2,000 acres. All the land and water area between Colaba and Navi Mumbai, which is nearly one-eighth of Mumbai, falls under JNPT. Keeping in view the acute shortage of land, the port trust has developed efficient land use schemes and have encouraged development of city’s infrastructure on a large scale. It has given up half of the land to MMRDA for development of Wadala Truck Terminus, aimed at decongesting South Bombay, and Mahul Link Road. It has also approved to development of MTHL with concessional rents on another 25% of its area. It also agreed to consider the elevation of Eastern Island Highway through its estate. JNPT now wishes to reclaim land between Colaba and Navi Mumbai to improve the infrastructure projects which is receiving serious oppositions from political parties and environmentalists.

Even after the disintegration of mill culture in Mumbai, NTC mill still has 1,377 acres of land in Central Mumbai after selling most of its property to private builders. The central and state institutions of Life Insurance Corporation of India, Income Tax offices and banks hold most of slum areas of Dharavi. CBI has 5,000 sq metres at Bandra-Kurla complex.

Unused Spaces in Mumbai

Most of the above stated lands are unused vacant spaces for various reasons. While some may fall under CRZ others are reserved by the government for open spaces and recreational activities. Around 135 acres of salt pan lands are spread in and around Mumbai under Ministry of Urban Development of India. If approved, these salt pans could be used by state government and private sectors for more infrastructure development. According to senior officials of Railways, the central and western railways have huge unused lands around CST and Bandra which could fetch up to 30 acres of land for development. Collectively, over 66% of vacant lands are still present in the city under the State and Private sectors.

Kharghar residents hit again by Grampanchayat property tax demand

The property tax issue in Kharghar remains unresolved even today. Recently, some societies received a property tax demand from the Kharghar gram panchayat to the tune of a few lakhs. Some societies received bills for as much as Rs.90 lakhs!

Kharghar has long been plagued by a triple property tax problem. Currently, Kharghar residents are paying taxes to 3 different entities. Cidco, Tehsildar and gram panchayat.
Residents are paying service tax to Cidco, property tax to the gram panchayat and NA (Non Agriculture) tax to the revenue department in this case to the Panvel tehsildar.
Until recently there was no Police station in Kharghar and there were issues with the electric supply in some sectors. Although a police station has been sanctioned there, it is still in the construction stages with the contractor stopping work due to cost escalation.

Since Kharghar is a \’developing node\’, it does not have a municipal corporation. All tasks of the Municipal Corporation are carried out by CIDCO. Most of the services are outsourced by CIDCO eg.Garbage collection. As a result, Kharghar faces a litany of woes.

The residents of Kharghar have formed a federation of housing societies to fight this issue. The federation met the Raigad collector recently and plans to meet the Urban development minister soon. The High court has redirected the matter to the Zilla Parishad.
Recently, corporator Santosh Shetty also faced the brunt of the Gram Panchayat when the Panchayat turned up at Hotel Three star (Kharghar)which is owned by Shetty. Fortunately for him, they were unable to carry out the sealing due to \’lack of police protection\’ which is a flimsy excuse in reality. It was stage managed to make it seem like the Gram Panchayat was taking action against the big fish also.

Reliance ADAG to develop township in Navi Mumbai in collaboration with Wanda Group (China)

Anil Ambani signed a MOU with Wanda group of China to develop 135 acres of land in Navi Mumbai near Ghansoli.It will be the first integrated township to be developed by Reliance ADAG in collaboration with Wanda group.The other will be in Hyderabad.

Anil Ambani\’s Reliance group, China\’s Wanda to form township joint venture (alllatestnews.wordpress.com)
Reliance Group, China\’s Wanda to form township JV (rediff.com)

Collector cancels land allotments

The Mumbai Suburban Collector Sanjay Deshmukh has decided to end the misuse and violation of land allotment agreements. Mr Deshmukh has recently cancelled the allotment of Jolly Brothers and Gyankendra Shikshan Sanstha and Shivshruthi Krida Kendra.Jolly brothers was allotted 60 acres of land near Kanjur marg railway station worth 3000 crores for Industrial purpose but was found to be in violation of the lease terms. Similarly, Gyankendra was allotted 4000 sq meters of land in Andheri but it was found that construction work was not completed in two years, as specified in the lease agreement. The ownership of the land has been transferred back to the govt. In the case of Shivshruthi, it was found that the organization had entered into an agreement with a developer to develop the land thereby illegaly creating a third party interest. Along with the above, more than 135 builders, housing societies and educational institutions have been served a notice after it was noticed that they too had prima facie violated the lease terms.
It may help to know that most of the 12.5% land allottees in Navi Mumbai are also in violation of the lease terms with CIDCO when they sign development agreements with builders. CIDCO has the powers to cancel all such land allotments provided a complaint is made to them. Buyers who are victims of such Development agreement scams are requested to approach CIDCO for cancellation of the same and re allotment in the favor of flat buyers/societies. CIDCO can then sign the Lease Deed directly with the Society and convey the land and building in the name of the Society.