Housing scam nipped in the bud

Forest department cancels DB realty's joint venture on protected land, abutting Sanjay Gandhi National Park

Housing scam nipped in the bud

Forest department cancels DB realty's joint venture on protected land, abutting Sanjay Gandhi National Park

In the aftermath of DB Realty head Shahid Balwa's arrest for his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, the conspirators of yet another possible housing scam on forestland nipped their ambitious project in the bud in the city.u00a0 According to documents available with MiD DAY, Conwood Construction and D B Realty had filed a proposal with Sanjay Gandhi National Park officials for converting their private forestlandu00a0-- measuring 5.28 hectares (ha) and bearing old survey no. 92 at Village Mira, abutting the protected areau00a0-- into a private property.

'Plot' thickens: The piece of land which was to be developed in to a
prime housing and shopping complex situated near Dahisar check naka.
Pic/Nimesh Dave

If the sources are to be believed the plan of the realty companies was to get clearance for converting 45.65 ha of forestland into a private property. "Since converting such a huge chunk of land together was legally not possible, the conspirators decided to get clearance in phases. Had Balwa not been arrested, they would have achieved their goal in connivance with forest department officials," said environmentalist M Manish. The land was to be developed into a prime housing and shopping complex. "A proposal to convert 5.28 ha private forestland was restored to the owners without checking the records. The proposal was cancelled soon after the arrest of Balwa," he added.

In 2007, the construction companies had also filed an application with the then Thane SDO who gave the go ahead for the project on plot no. 92 at Mira, overlooking the fact that documents related to land records were missing from his office. (Documents available with MiD DAY). The construction companies were planning to convert private forestland for construction purposes under the provision of Forest Conservation act 1980.

However, Manish pointed out that parties owning land more than 12 ha attract Section 22 A of the Maharashtra Private Forest Acquisition Act, which allows conversion of private forest land (measuring 5.28 ha or less) into private property. In this case, the company owns 45.65 ha in villages of Mira, Ghodbunder and Bhayander in Thane district. Manish said, "Facts related to the land records were concealed and shown in installments so that the project could be cleared."

Documents available with MiD DAY suggest that the forest department did not check their own records before stating that the land was restored to the owners. The officials did not take into account their own entries where the land holding was over 45 ha.

Con job?
Only one page showing partial land owning (5.28 ha) was on the record. There was a remark: pude nond aahe (there are other entries), but the other pages were missing. The SDO, in a letter dated October 10, 2007, gave his consent to transfer the land even while documents were missing from his office.

The Other Side
Conservator of Forest Sanjay Gandhi National Park Dr P N Munde when contacted said, "We have already cancelled Conwood's proposal and all these allegations are false." Conwood's spokesperson Jyotika Verma, who was provided with a questionnaire on Monday evening by MiD DAY, refused to comment on the issue.