Map for lost cities

Zagade knows what he8217;s talking about. Four hours on an under construction four-lane highway from Mumbai is one of India8217;s fastest growing urban centres. Known for hosting the traditional Kumbh Mela every 12 years and simultaneously speeding down the development highway with an annual growth rate of over five per cent, Nashik is waiting for its chance to grow up to become a 8216;8216;megacity8217;8217;.

In the race to cash in on the saturation of cities like Mumbai and Pune, Nashik has set a punishing pace for itself 8212; expanding infrastructure, marketing its wine, kick starting its airport and making sure it is on the chosen list of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal mission.

On the surface, the city seems to be doing fine. Like all other ambitious small cities across the country, the Nashik skyline is also dotted with haphazard construction, its streets littered with malls and multiplexes. As it opens up to MNCs, in the narrow bylanes of the old city, the kirana store still flourishes.

But below the promising surface, a bubbling cauldron of corruption, deceit and deception was making Nashik8217;s megacity ride a very bumpy one. And as residents watched, their 8216;8216;pilgrim city8217;8217; was threatening to turn into a monstrosity they didn8217;t really want.

IT all began in the 8217;90s and slowly spiralled out of control. It was during the mad rush of the Kumbh Mela in 2003, a few months after Zagade took charge, that an innocuous meeting with a builder first exposed the darkside of development.

8216;8216;During those hectic days, I had a visitor who wanted some permission regarding land,8217;8217; Zagade remembers. 8216;8216;Without giving me much of a chance to react, he started talking big money and caught my attention.8217;8217;

And then companies started applying to him for permission to convert agricultural land into non-agricultural NA land. Going by the book, Zagade started rejecting the applications, stating that only farmers were allowed to buy agricultural land.

Alarmed builders barged into his office, demanding an explanation, offering bribes and threatening dire consequences.

8216;8216;Seeing their desperation, I started digging deeper,8217;8217; Zagade says. 8216;8216;And I quickly realised that for almost 10 years, all land laws in Nashik had been on holiday. Every rule had been broken and every law twisted to help a handful of people buy property worth crores in the city.8217;8217;

As the district collectorate started investigating suspicious land deals, they found a 8216;8216;systematic failure of the revenue department8217;8217; and about 350 companies were found to have prima facie involvement. These companies were floated by land sharks to acquire agricultural or reserved land for commercial purposes.

In the last 30 years, about 300 cases of serious irregularities in transfer of agricultural land have been detected. In most of the cases, private companies have bought agricultural land in violation of rules, while in some cases, land reserved for public purposes has been illegally transferred to builders.

In one of the most audacious violations, a prime plot of land reserved for building a new complex for various government offices in the city was cut into plots and sold by a private builder. As the inquiry progressed, it showed that besides buying up land and pushing real estate prices up, the land mafia had also evaded stamp duty worth crores, left behind hundreds of landless farmers with little money in hand and ensured that planned growth remains a dream for the city.

Almost two years into the land scam probes, Zagade continues to get threats. On two occasions, his house has been broken into. The third time round, black magic voodoo dolls, each one with a needle sticking in it, were left at his doorstep.

BUT that hasn8217;t stopped Zagade8217;s zeal or the city8217;s growth. 8216;8216;Nashik has become an eye-opener for others,8217;8217; says Zagade, self-indulgently. At a time when bulldozers are razing down buildings in Delhi and the course of the Mithi river is being debated in Mumbai, Nashik is putting its building blocks together.

After the Nashik land scandal broke, the administration got cracking. The district collectorate started boldly stamping 8216;8216;illegal transaction8217;8217; on all 7/12 rights of record documents. It also gave farmers the right to buy back land they had sold to industries. All stamp duty evasions were brought under the scanner and heavy fines imposed on defaulters.

To ensure that the accused did not slip through some legal loophole, collector Zagade used the knowledge he had gained during his stint in the Law and Judiciary department to successfully argue the cases in court.

Over 16,000 cases, where NA approvals were given by the government are being scrutinised again to check whether the permission to convert agricultural land into non-agricultural land was correctly given. Is Amitabh Bachchan a farmer? And if he is not then can he buy agricultural land he owns land near Pune? These questions were thrown up during the Nashik land scam investigations and have initiated a nation-wide debate. In Nashik, the government has appointed a special tehsildar to look into all such cases and submit a report.

Often invited to speak on land laws, Zagade8217;s only tip is 8216;8216;follow the law8217;8217;. 8216;8216;Government officials have permitted the chaos in Mumbai and Delhi to build up. Now they want to break it down. My question is, why allow the illegalities in the first place?8217;8217;

And the answer to that, Zagade believes, holds the key to planned development of tomorrow8217;s megacities.