Naik’s open house silences many

MUMBAI, June 26: It was clearly Ganesh Naik's day. If the marathon open-house session hosted by him today, where senior CIDCO officials wer...

MUMBAI, June 26: It was clearly Ganesh Naik’s day. If the marathon open-house session hosted by him today, where senior CIDCO officials were grilled by the residents of Navi Mumbai, looked like a royal durbar over which he presided, it suited him fine. Naik, Thane’s guardian minister, has been under tremendous pressure from the rival Shiv Sena faction in the district headed by former mayor Sushma Dande, and he needed to make a bold statement.

And if there were any doubts about the show being Naik’s political vehicle, they were set aside the corporators present at the venue. While all the 25 corporators belonging to the Naik group were present, the Sushma Dande group was conspicious by its absence. The state government’s recent decision to ban quarrying in Navi Mumbai was seen as Thackeray’s attempt to cut Naik to size, since his family has wide interests in the industry. It was only after Naik met the Sena chief and the chief minister that the state government relented and ordered creation of special zones for quarrying. The open house was Naik’s message to his supporters and detractors alike – I am still in control.

“This is only the beginning of my endevour to make government agencies more responsive to public needs. I plan to have quarterly reviews of the progress made on various issues discussed here,” Naik told a packed Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium at Vashi.

The officials answered over 200 questions. A majority of these were related to the compensation (in terms of plots) that the project affected people (PAPs) were supposed to get from CIDCO. CIDCO’s chief land and survey officer T S Bhalerao said the government allowed regularisation of unauthorised structures in Gaothan areas if the plot owners were eligible for compensatory plots of 12.5 per cent of the developed land acquired from them. There is, however, a ceiling of 500 sq. mtr for regularising such structures. He said the regular allotment of plots to the project affected, under what is popularly known as “the 12.5 per cent scheme,” would shortly be completed, Bhalerao said.

To a question raised by a quarry owner on the impact of the ban on quarrying in Navi Mumbai, Naik disclosed that Chief Minister Manohar Joshi has called a meeting on Monday at Sahyadri Guest House to discuss the ban. Setting up special zones for quarrying and providing alternative sources of income to quarry owners would be high on the agenda, he said. He appealed to quarry owners not to get panicky at this stage when the issue was slated to be discussed with the chief minister.

On slums, Naik appealed to City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) officials to take a humanitarian approach and avoid demolitions of unauthorised structures in the monsoon. He said he was following up with the government at various levels the possibility of introducing the slum re-development scheme in Navi Mumbai too.

Naik said he had received several complaints of leakages in CIDCO-built flats and instructed the officials to attend to them and have them sorted out. An irritated resident pointed out that CIDCO had installed inferior electric metres and even the wiring was of a bad quality which was why within two years of handing over the flats they had started giving problems. Naik asked CIDCO to penalise the contractors who had done the bad job, and adequately compensate the flat owners.

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On the pending clearance of plans for construction at Vasai-Virar Naik reminded CIDCO officials that “delays would give rise to frustration and loss of trust in the government agency.” A CIDCO officer explained that plans for areas upto 1,000 sq. mt alone were being approved at present and the planning committee is considering to raise the ceiling.

Naik said he would like to have similar sessions involving other authorities like MIDC, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation to have a coordinated activity for development of Navi Mumbai as the city of the future.

All the twenty-five ruling Shiv Sena corporators belonging to the Naik faction were present at the session, as were Sandhya Kousadikar (Independent) and Vrishali Sarode of the Congress party. While three Naik group corporators were absent due to personal reasons, the entire Dande faction, including Mayor Chandu Rane, were conspicuous by their absence.