Mumbai: Show proof you own Kanjurmarg site, BJP challenges MVA

Buoyed by the Centres missive to stop the Metro 3 car shed work at the Kanjurmarg land on Tuesday the Bharatiya Janata Party challenged the Thackeray government to produce evidence showing that the State owns the new siteThe ruling party at the Centre came under fire from the MVA partners for creating hurdles in the restructured Metro 3 plan but the BJP blamed the state government for deliberately slowing the projects by making wrong moves such as claiming ownership rights to the Kanjurmarg landThe Centre has told the Maharashtra government that the union governmentcontrolled salt commissioner owns the Kanjurmarg siteHowever Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted on Tuesday The Kanjurmarg land allotted by the Collector to MMRDA for Car depot of Metro has always been with Govt of Maharashtra as per revenue records The Collector Mumbai Suburban has done due diligence of all land records and all subjudice matters in all competent courts The MMRDA will therefore carry on with its work for Metro joint Car Depots at Kanjurmarg as earlier decidedNCPs national spokesperson and state minister Nawab Malik accused the BJP of conspiring to halt the project work through the Union government The concerned salt pan land belongs to the state and the project will take shape on that site itself Initially the BJP had said that the land is private Now the Centre says that it owns it Malik saidSeeing this it seems that the BJP wants to lay roadblocks in the Metro work The Kanjurmarg car shed will merge two lines of Mumbai and benefit 20 lakh people It is clear now that the BJP has started conspiring to stop the project through the Centre he claimed Malik also said that as per his information the Centre had in 2002 transferred several salt pan lands to the state government It is our governments landThe previous government had affirmed it he saidNCP MP Supriya Sule too insisted that the land belongs to Maharashtra It is unfortunate The Centre is intervening in the development of Maharashtra This is an injustice to Maharashtra she saidMVA creating delusionBJP MLA Ashish Shelar said the Uddhav Thackerayled state government is slowing down major infrastructure projects There is no information in the public domain that the state received this land from the department concerned to construct the Metro 3 car shed he said Does the State have a hidden agenda in the name of shifting the car shed to Kanjurmarg It looks like this government is creating a delusion about its functioning and is in fact slowing down major infrastructure projects Shelar allegedThe former state minister also alleged that the government has not given clear answers on whether a fresh development plan for the Kanjurmarg land has been prepared or if the technical study has been completedFormer BJP MP Kirit Somaiya challenged the government to make public a factfinding report by the expert committee led by additional chief secretary Manoj Saunik The report clearly states that the land is legally disputed We had said so in the very beginning and the Centres letter has vindicated our claim he claimed adding that the delay in Metro construction was only because of an ego trip and will cause a loss of R5000 crore in the next five yearsThe MVA government knew of the loss estimated by the expert committee The CM said he was giving the Kanjurmarg land for free but is he telling the complete truth The Saunik committee CMs principal advisor Ajoy Mehtas committee and suburban district collector have said with documentary evidence that the Kanjurmarg land is disputed Somaiya said adding that the government didnt give him the committee reports under the Right To Information Act5kAmount in crore said to be projected loss over Metro 3 delayKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news