Multi-crore scam in BDD project 8211; Cong

MUMBAI, SEPT 25: Mumbai Regional Congress Committee MRCC general secretary, Syed Zabeer Abbas Rizvi, has charged the Sena-BJP alliance ...

MUMBAI, SEPT 25: Mumbai Regional Congress Committee MRCC general secretary, Syed Zabeer Abbas Rizvi, has charged the Sena-BJP alliance government of being involved in a multi-crore scam8217; in the proposal of redevelopment of Bombay Development Department BDD chawls across Mumbai.

The State cabinet had cleared a Rs 500-crore proposal on September 17 for redevelopment of a cluster of 207 BDD chawls spread in Worli, Sewri, Naigaon and N M Joshi Marg. Rizvi claimed that with the extraordinary floor space index FSI of 3.192 granted by the Rane government, the builder would earn a profit of Rs 2,500 crore at current real estate prices.

Addressing a press meet on Sunday, Rizvi announced that he would also file a public interest litigation seeking an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI into the proposal to find out the behind the curtains8217; beneficiaries in case the redevelopment takes place.

8220;The Manohar Joshi government had appointed an expert committee under the chairmanship of vicepresident of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA to recommend to the government various steps to be taken to redevelop the BDD chawls. The committee, in its report submitted in February 1996, recommended that MHADA and state housing department should take up redevelopment of only five chawls at Worli as a pilot project. It said that maximum permissible FSI should be 2.6 only. Moreover, the committee maintained that financially and technically sound multi-national corporations with proven track record be appointed as contractors for redevelopment only after floating tenders.8221;

Rizvi charged the Chief Minister of totally ignoring the report. 8220;Why did the State Government itself implement the project instead of awarding it to an unknown private builder without inviting tenders? Why was the project work not distributed amongst many developers like the Mumbai-Pune Expressway,8221; asked Rizvi.

Rizvi claimed that with the extraordinary FSI granted by the State Government to be used in otherparts of the city or sold in open market after redeveloping the BDD chawls, the builder would make profits of over Rs 2,500 crore.

In his complaint to the Election Commission EC, the Congress leader has sought an inquiry into the State Government8217;s decision which he said was taken when the model code of conduct of elections was still in force.