Besides open spaces adopted by senior Shiv Sena leaders Ravindra Waikar and Sunil Prabhu, Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray’s Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) could also lose the 16,000 square metre plot in Parel. Thackeray is the chairman of the MDFA. The Parel plot is among the 216 open spaces that the BMC is seeking to take back. The MDFA is likely to be issued a notice regarding the move soon. The Gardens Department of the BMC confirmed that the St Xavier’s Ground, located near the KEM Hospital, is included in the list of recreation grounds that will be issued notices next. “We will be issuing a notice to the MDFA possibly in the next batch of notices that we send out,” said a senior official of the Gardens Department. Calling the decision senseless and unfair, Aaditya Thackeray told The Indian Express that they will send a representation to the administration as penalising such organisations would discourage them from volunteering to provide civic utilities. “The MDFA maintains the football ground for its teams and thousands of football lovers and locals who play there. All the enhanced facilities are open to all. [related-post] With this decision, football in Mumbai will really suffer and the people to be blamed for it are those who are enforcing this blanket decision without any research and information,” he said. He added that MDFA currently maintains the goal posts and astro turf as well as organises training sessions. Meanwhile, members of the Standing Committee supported a decision to draw up a fresh list of open spaces after leader of the house and Sena corporator Trushna Vishwasrao stated that her name was erroneously included in the list. “There are two plots in the name of my trust in the list when neither of them were ever allotted. There would be other errors like that where names of people who have been allotted plots would be missing from the list. An inquiry should be ordered into it,” she said. MNS corporator Sandeep Deshpande demanded a fresh list of plots to be drawn up following a detailed enquiry. “In my ward (G North) itself, Sena legislator Sada Sarvankar has been allotted a plot and his name is not mentioned in the list. Instead, there are two mentions of Trushna Vishwasrao who are not allotted any. The list has multiple errors and needs to be fixed. The ward officials need to visit every plot and then create a fresh list after which the BMC should take back the plots,” he said.
