Mumbai Beat

Retd cop loses case on accommodation

The Police Department has won a decade-long battle in the Small Causes Court against a retired assistant commissioner of police, S B Bellari, over the latter8217;s attempt to usurp flat he occupied as official accommodation.

Bellari was allotted a flat in Shivneri building at Sion on rent in 1974. In 1988, when he retired as ACP, he was served notice to vacate. However, Bellari and 11 other police officers in the building purchased the flats from the original owners and set up the Sion Shivneri Cooperative Housing Society. Police had argued that by executing the deal, Bellari had cheated thegovernment as well as the joint registrar of cooperative societies.

Bellari had also filed a suit against the commissioner of police, Mumbai, in 1989.

The case was, however, decided by S B Pande of the Small Causes Court in favour of the police in October 1999. Advocate Abbas Hetavkar appeared for the state.

Water charges in Navi Mumbai

The furore over the hike in water charges in Navi Mumbai will be referred to the Board of Directors of the City and Industrial Development Corporation CIDCO before any decision is taken on the issue, according to CIDCO Chairperson Narayan Marathe. He said the matter would be deliberated within a week.

Controversy had arisen when CIDCO recently effected an exorbitant increase in the water charges, in some cases by over 300 per cent, with all the major political parties seeking to extract political mileage.