Adarsh scam: MMRDA official retracts statement

A senior official of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority on Thursday backtracked from his earlier statement regarding the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authoritys power to give clearances.

A senior official of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Thursday backtracked from his earlier statement regarding the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authoritys (MCZMA) power to give clearances.

Pradeep Yadav,a senior planner with the MMRDA,retracted his statement while appearing as a witness before the two-member Adarsh commission. In an earlier deposition,Yadav had stated the MCZMA is the proper competent authority,which could have issued CRZ clearances in 2002 – 03.

However,during cross examination by the counsel for the Adarsh society Saket Mone on Thursday,he said,It is correct that the MCZMA has only recommendatory power and no clearance powers are given to it… I agree that the earlier said statement by me is incorrect and the one which I have made now is correct.

Yadav also claimed that a letter dated March 15,2003,which was issued by the state government to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation,could be considered as a no-objection certificate from the CRZ point of view. He,however,admitted that the letter is pre-dated to the building proposal.

This contradicts an earlier statement made on affidavit by the deputy director of town planning for Greater Mumbai Sanjay Kurve. The official had claimed that the society had misconstrued and misinterpreted the letter as an NOC. He had also stated that the MCZMA was the competent body to give the clearance.

According to Kurve,the communique,which informed the Chief Engineer of Developmental Plan,BMC,that the MoEF had given its NOC to the development,had been incorrectly given by the deputy secretary of the state.

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