45 acres ‘encroached’ by Shiv Sena, BJP-run private clubs: Mumbai Congress chief

The BMC is soon set to present its new policy on maintenance of these RGs and PGs through involvement of private agencies including citizens’ groups, almost a decade after the previous ‘caretaker’ policy was stayed by the then Congress-NCP state government.

“Whether it is Matoshree club in Jogeshwari or the Kamla Vihar club in Borivali, the Dahisar foundation premises or the Poisar gymkhana, these have all been literally grabbed by the Sena-BJP leaders,” said Nirupam. “We have seen the agreements and found that each of these nine clubs violates several clauses of the agreements originally signed with the BMC.”

Nirupam said local residents and Congress workers would hold agitation outside these clubs in Andheri and in Kandivali-Borivali to pressurise the Sena-BJP leaders.

He said Matoshree club was to be handed over back to the BMC after maintenance work. In the case of Kamla Vihar sports club, the agreement stipulates that the ground would not be used for any religious, social or political events, he said. “The truth is that these clubs have daily events including weddings, political functions and other events. The rent for the ground at Matoshree is Rs 85,000 for an evening, I am told,” he alleged.

“Nobody knows who decides the membership fees to these private clubs operating on land owned by the public. Worse, none of these clubs have paid the BMC lease rents since 2005. They are all defaulters,” Nirupam said, adding that the annual sum payable by Matoshree club to the BMC as per the agreement was approximately Rs 24 lakh, with effect from December 1999. “That works out to over Rs 40 crore by now, but payment made until now to the BMC is only Rs 1.5 crore,” he said.

These nine open plots are among those handed in the mid and late-90s to trusts for maintenance and development on a ‘caretaker’ basis or construction of facilities for sports or recreation and then handing over to the BMC. The BMC in turn was to accept a fee from the trusts and then hand them over to the same trusts for ‘maintenance’. The development of the land was to include construction on a limited percentage. The rest of the land, however, was to have been easily accessible to citizens.

In 2005, the BMC served eviction notices on two of these clubs, leading to litigation that is still pending.