A name Nandlal Panel missed: Ravindra Mane

MUMBAI, JAN 1: Industrialists who have illegally set up small-scale units on a 20-acre plot in Thane have found a godfather in the state ...

MUMBAI, JAN 1: Industrialists who have illegally set up small-scale units on a 20-acre plot in Thane have found a godfather in the state government, which has steamrolled the civic authorities into stalling their demolition.

Minister of State for Urban Development, Ravindra Mane, who says he felt obliged to protect the livelihood of the businessmen, had written to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) in February and March 1998 asking the commissioner to spare the 81 unauthorised structures (most of them SSIs) on Survey Number 275 in Kolshet village as the government was planning to regularise them. His diktat, interestingly, comes five years after his own department directed the TMC to raze the structures.

Businessman Ram Khanna, who owns the property, says the minister’s order has now robbed him of the last vestige of hope he had of setting up an industry on his land.

Khanna, who purchased the plot from the Kolshet Gram Panchayat in 1966, says he could not set up an industry then as the government hadbanned such activity in the area at the time. Over the years, encroachers usurped the land with 81 structures ranging from 40 sq ft to 3,500 sq ft standing on it today. Ashirvad Shikshan Mandal, which opened a school, St Xavier’s School, on the plot, is the biggest encroacher while some of the SSIs operate under the aegis of the Jaibhavani Industrial Estate.

Khanna’s first glimmer of hope came with a ruling by the Supreme Court some years ago which deemed that his plot fell within a chemical zone. The ruling therefore cleared the obstacles for Khanna to set up an industry there. Or so he thought.

Khanna approached the TMC, the Thane police and the state Urban Development Department (UDD), which governs all municipal bodies in the state, urging them to remove the encroachments.

The UDD directed the municipal commissioner to raze the unauthorised structures vide a letter dated February 1993. It also ordered the TMC to submit an action taken report. The TMC still refused to budge, giving the encroachersfree rein.

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Dejection turned to hope for the second time for Khanna, when T S Chandrashekhar took over as municipal commissioner. Chandrashekhar, who initiated a large-scale demolition drive against illegal structures in early 1998, planned to turn the bulldozers on the Kolshet plot as well and the encroachers were issued notices to vacate.

However, the minister stepped in, asking the TMC to pull back. Mane’s letter to the commissioner, dated February 14, 1998, reads: “Fifteen industrial structures have been constructed in the Jaibhavani Industrial Estate about 15 years back. The matter of regularising these structures is under consideration of the government. You are therefore hereby requested not to take any action with regard to demolition of said structures till a decision is taken by the government in the matter.”

Reinforcing his request, Mane wrote to the TMC in March as well, saying: “Ashirvad Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha is running a school at Survey No 275, Kolshet, Thane. About 1,500 studentsare studying in this school. You are requested not to take any action with regard to demolition of said school unless and until you discuss the matter with the undersigned.”

Now, Khanna has petitioned Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, the Thane police and the TMC. “I am forced to fight to get my land cleared. But with the minister himself backing the encroachers by stalling the demolition, I expect little can be done.” Khanna has also moved the Bombay High Court against the encroachers, who have claimed ownership of the land.

Minister’s reply

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Minister of State for Urban Development Ravindra Mane admits that he had intervened on behalf of the encroachers and justified this saying it is the right of the state government. “Workers from the Jaibhavani Industrial Estate had sought my intervention. Since the livelihood of hundreds of people was at stake, I ordered a stay on the demolition. As far as the school is concerned, I shall have to check the files fordetails,” Mane told ExpressNewsline.

“The stay is temporary and should not be considered as shielding illegal structures. In any case, the land’s ownership is yet to be decided by Revenue Minister Narayan Rane. Till such time, the structures will not be demolished,” he said.

Municipal Commissioner T S Chandrashekhar was not available for comment but Deputy Municipal Commissioner Tarunkumar Khatri told Express Newsline that Khanna is trying to get his land cleared at the TMC’s cost.

“The matter is much too complicated as the plot’s ownership is in dispute and the case is sub-judice. I admit that the land has been encroached on but it was Khanna’s duty to protect his own land. “He wants us to clear the encroachments for him. But since the government has stayed the demolition, the TMC will not proceed in the matter,” Khatri said.