‘Irregularities’ in granting OC to housing projects, Nashik civic chief shunted out

Opposition leader in Legislative Council, Pravin Darekar, had raised the issue in the Legislative Council on Monday by moving a Calling Attention Motion. He alleged that since the last nine years, the Nashik Municipal Corporation had granted part Occupation Certificates (OCs) to many housing projects without ensuring transfer of 20 per cent of reserved flats to MHADA for affordable housing.

Darekar said 20 per cent flats under the housing schemes in an area of one acre has to be reserved for the low-income group (LIG) while the remaining can be sold in the open market by builders. The reserved 20 per cent flats have to be transferred to MHADA, however, OCs were being issued without ensuring the flats were transferred to the Authority, alleged Darekar.

It was alleged that failure to do so has caused the state a loss of 3,500 units, valued at Rs 700 crore.

State Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad had also tweeted about the issue in January, saying the Nashik Municipal Corporation was not providing exact information about all the projects. “The Nashik municipal commissioner has earlier mentioned 34 projects related to MHADA. Then their town planner said it was 84. All these projects were related to flats. And the corporation is not ready to give any account of the layout of one acre,” Awhad had tweeted in January.

Speaking on the issue in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, the minister said, “Houses in Nashik Municipal Corporation area have not been provided as per the requirement of MHADA. There is a discrepancy between the information provided by MHADA and the Nashik Municipal Corporation. Therefore, a full investigation will be carried out into how many OCs have been issued after 2013, how many houses were to be acquired and how many houses were received. Officials who are found guilty will not be spared. Also, action will be taken as per the instructions given by the Speaker in this case.”

After Darekar raised the issue in the House, Jadhav was transferred from the post of NMC commissioner. He was succeeded by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officer Ramesh Pawar.

Refuting the allegations, Jadhav said due procedure had been followed while granting OCs. He also pointed out that he was appointed the civic chief only in 2020 and he had no role to play in what happened before that.

He also said that since 2020, when he joined the office, construction work in the city had been completely stopped due to Covid-19.

“We have submitted a report in the matter and prima facie, there is no scam or any irregularity. All the rules and regulations were followed. The Corporation has so far given only 10 OCs and MHADA has given NOCs to 14 buildings to sell the flats in the open market, so there is no question of any scam. Instead, the builder had offered MHADA flats in 14 buildings, but they refused to take them as they do not have money, and they gave NOCs to sell those flats in the open market. There is no discrepancy at all and all the information has been given without hiding anything. Why would I hide anything? The scheme started since 2013 and since then, nine commissioners have served in this Corporation. Since 2013 till date, permission to 67 buildings have been sanctioned and out of that, work of 10 buildings have been completed and OCs have been given to these 10 buildings. Construction of 57 buildings is yet to be completed. I don’t know from where the amount of Rs 700 crore has come,” Jadhav told The Indian Express.

He also said his transfer had nothing to do with the issue. “I have been transferred for administrative reasons and the transfer proposal was approved last week, even before the matter was raised in the Legislative Council. So, there is no connection between my transfer and the issue which was raised in the Council,” he added.