Mumbai: Shiv Sena claims right to Malabar Hill bungalow, wants IAS couple evicted

Pravin and Pallavi Darade have been occupying the bungalow that belongs to the BMC’s hydraulic engineering department since December 2014, when Pallavi was posted as additional municipal commissioner. Pravin, an IAS officer of the 1998 batch, is currently posted as additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA. Pallavi, an IRS officer of the 1997 batch, is holding the post of commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Since last year, the opposition in the BMC, led by the Congress’s Ravi Raja, had been demanding a probe into the allotment and has demanded that the BMC take back control of the bungalow. The state government, however, has held that as IAS officials in the BMC also occupy government-owned properties, including the municipal commissioner’s official residence, this arrangement of allotting municipality-owned properties to state government officials should be acceptable too.

Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said: “It looks like the state government violated BMC rules and allotted the bungalow to an IAS officer. The BMC must take back the bungalow immediately. The mayor doesn’t have an official residence to live in and is being pushed into an old bungalow inside Byculla zoo, while an IAS couple gets a sea-facing bungalow. This is not acceptable to us.”

Another Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar said, “This is unprecedented and encroaches on the BMC’s autonomy.”
The BMC has been looking for a new mayoral bungalow since the previous residence was allotted for a memorial to Bal Thackeray. Mahadeshwar has refused to move into a bungalow inside the Byculla zoo.

In September 2017, the BMC had issued an eviction notice to the Darades stating that the allotment three years ago was illegal. However, Darades refused to vacate the sea-facing, British-era bungalow, setting off a row over the allotment.

The civic body was forced to ignore its own rules after the state’s General Administration Department (GAD) issued a clarification. In a November 2017 letter, the GAD told municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta that the couple would continue to occupy the bungalow till Pravin is posted in Mumbai.

When contacted, Pallavi Darade told The Indian Express that the bungalow was allotted to them by the state government and it should be the government that takes a call. She said, “There are many officials who have been occupying such bungalows, nobody has been writing or speaking about that. Our names have been dragged into this only due to somebody’s vested interests.” She added that there is no need to rake up this issue when a clear government order exists.

Meanwhile, Mahadeshwar said, “I am willing to move to the Malabar Hill bungalow, however due to a bizarre state government order, the Darades continue to occupy it. It is illegal.”