Hill station in mountain of trouble

Itrsquos a hill station thatrsquos fast turning into a hot potato after being designated one of Indiarsquos biggest land scams by many Two prominent persons are at the helm of Girivan Project in Hotale village near Kolvan of Mulshi taluka of Pune district mdash Jayant Mhalgi son of former BJP MP Rambhau Mhalgi and actor Vikram Gokhale Allegations are that the developers have encroached upon 650 acres of agricultural and forest land for the project without obtaining proper permission from authorities and farmers Several nonresident Indians NRIs and other investors from Pune Mumbai Goa Nagpur Kerala etc claim they have been cheated by the firm Whou00a0At the helm of the Girivan Project are Jayant Mhalgi son of former BJP MP Rambhau Mhalgi and actor Vikram Gokhale Whereu00a0Hotale village near Kolvan of Mulshiu00a0taluka of Pune district Located 2400 feet above sea level Troubled roads u00a0Plot owners say Jayant Mhalgi and Vikram Gokhale left started the project inu00a019891990 PicShadab Khan The project located approximately 2400 feet above sea level and 400 feet above the Lonavala hill station has been named lsquoMini Mahabaleshwarrsquo by the accused According to plot owners Jayant Mhalgi and Vikram Gokhale started the project in 19891990 Mhalgi is the managing director MD and Gokhale the chairman of Girivan Group of Industries The project was however undertaken under the banner of lsquoSujata farms private limitedrsquo Entry restricted Local farmers allege Girivan developers have put up fences around plots restricting their movement in the areau00a0PicShadab Khan Highend con game More than 1050 persons have purchased land till now Among them 250 are from Mumbai and 400 from Pune Politicians bureaucrats bankers doctors engineers share brokers and retired central agencies officials are among the investors ldquoI bought land trusting the name of Rambhau Mhalgi thinking his son Jayant will be honest But I was wrong I have been cheated Mhalgi has no papers of the landrdquo claimed MS Joshi who purchased 18 acres of land about 10 years ago and runs a resort in Girivan Joshi is now alleging that the plot purchased by him actually belongs to a villager Not just that Mhalgi and Gokhale have also allegedly not bothered to follow environment norms and had cut more than a 100 trees to construct 18 kilometres of road inside the project Interestingly developers built this road on lands of plot owners but collect Rs 6000 per year from them as lsquoroad taxrsquo every year Rocky road Another plot owner Arun Deshmukh confirmed ldquoThey Mhalgi and Gokhale have constructed a road on my plot and now they demand road tax from merdquo The scam came to light in 2005 when a farmer Ganesh Jauhari smelt something fishy and demarcated his land through the collectorrsquos office He was shocked to discover that his land had been sold by Girivan Group of Industries to another person Allegedly fearing more accusations Girivan Group of Industries have cordoned off most of the land belonging to the villagers and even constructed a boundary to restrict their entry They have deputed security guards at the entrance who reportedly threaten agriculturists and even restrict them from entering their own land The farmers say they have their Kuldevi Bhairavnath and Waghjai temples inside Girivan In October 2010 the farmers tried to perform a special pooja but allege security guards did not allow them to do so After heated arguments the farmers registered a complaint in Paud police station and cops reportedly arrested 11 security guards When contacted forest officer Popat Bhalekar said ldquoI have received a complaint The matter is under investigationrdquo Land of controversies 1 At least 17 farmers have complained in writing to the tehsildar against Girivan They claimed a Girivan management had changed the route of natural water flow which has affected agriculture in the area b The developers had encroached upon their lands through fencing c The management have constructed roads on their land and are also not allowing them to use it On October 31 2006 the tehsildar replied to the farmers copy available with MiD DAY that he had personally visited the spot and all the allegations made were true For this the tehsildar had even warned Girivan officials in writing copy available with MiD DAY 2 On August 30 2007 a plot owner Smita Joshi demanded information through an RTI plea to the district collector asking for documents on Girivan On September 28 2007 the collectorrsquos office replied copy available with MiD DAY that he has no papers related to Girivan 3 On December 10 2007 Member of Parliament MP Shivaji Adhalrao Patil wrote a letter copy available with MiD DAY to the Hotale village sarpanch informing that he had written a letter to the then district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh demanding inquiry into the matter and take necessary action against those who are found guilty However till date no such probe has been conducted 4 On January 25 2008 Member of Legislative Assembly MLA Sharad Bajirao Dhamale also wrote a letter copy available with MiD DAY to the tehsildar complaining that Girivan had illegally constructed a gate restricting the farmersrsquo entry to their lands He asked the tehsildar to look in to the matter and take action but nothing was done 5 On April 30 2008 plot owners and farmers met the then superintendent of police SP Vishwas NangrePatil and complained in writing copy available with MiD DAY demanding inquiry and action in to the matter Nothing happened 6 On December 18 2008 revenue department fined Girivan management Rs 75 lakh for carrying out illegal land mining The tehsildar wrote to the developers asking them to consider the letter copy available with MiD DAY as last warning and stop illegal activities 7 On July 2 2009 development officer panchayat committee wrote a letter copy with MiD DAY to Mhalgi stating that he had constructed on 493 square metres of land illegally in name of Sujata farms private limited Mhalgi had allegedly forged the documents and had not submitted the original papers The panchayat said unless the original papers were produced all construction would be deemed illegal 8 On December 18 2009 the forest department informed copy available with MiD DAY to plot owner Smita Joshi that they had registered an offence against Girivan for illegally encroaching on forest land 9 On September 6 2011 farmers land owners complained about the issue in a general meeting with the district collector The collector wrote copy available with MiD DAY to the revenue department to inquire into the matter and take action on Girivan Plot owners speak Cheated land buyers formed Girivan plot owners association five years ago and since then 250 members have enrolled This is what they said gtgtu00a0u00a0ldquoI have filed a case in the consumer court Itrsquos shocking Mhalgi told the court that I had never bought the land and have encroached upon it Mhalgi took money for a total of 18 guntha but registered only 13 guntha He had no documents of one guntha of landrdquo said Dr RN Chaturvedi president of the association gtgtu00a0u00a0ldquoMhalgi and Gokhale have cheated us in collaboration with government officials Now we want justicerdquo said Arun Deshmukh vicepresident of the association Seven years back Deshmukh bought 14000 sq ft of land He claims Mhalgi encroached upon 1000 sq ft of it and constructed a road gtgtu00a0u00a0ldquoI have collected all documents that prove Girivan is illegal I will produce them at the right timerdquo said a plot owner who is a retired official from a central investigative agency gtgt ldquoIt feels like a prison inside Girvan If I try to take a walk in the morning or evening in the area the security guards object I am shocked to know that Girvan is illegalrdquo said a female plot owner who wished to remain anonymous gtgtu00a0u00a0ldquoIf the project falls in agricultural land then how have Mhalgi and Gokhale developed it Why havenrsquot they demarcated their land till now They are qualified gundasrdquo said a plot holder The other side Replying to MiD DAYrsquos queries the management of Girivan said ldquoOur project is absolutely legal There is no forestland in our project The land in project Girivan falls in agriculture category We have not cut trees in fact we have planted thousands of them in the project with the help of the forest department The revenue department has claimed an amount from us towards royalty The matter is pending in courtrdquo ldquoEverything is legal in our project Some persons are trying to defame us They are creating unnecessary nuisance I challenge that if any person proves that we have encroached upon forestland we will hand over double the amount of land Some plot holders have illegally developed their tractsrdquo said Vikram Gokhale chairman of Girivan u00a0