The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is making a last attempt to acquire a 40-acre plot in Dindoshi. Based on the BMC’s request, the collector recently issued a notification for acquiring the land reserved for rehabilitation and resettlement, and a municipal school.
After the loss of a 13,674 square metre plot in Jogeshwari, which was reserved for a recreation ground and hospital, the civic body came under fire from public representatives last year. This was followed by another loss: 40-acre plot in Dindoshi.
In the Dindoshi case, the land is part of 587 acres belonging to F.E. Dinshaw Trust headed by Nusli Wadia. The 40 acres had been in the BMC’s possession since 1974 for creation of rehabilitation settlements, and it was agreed that the civic body would formally acquire the plot.
Meanwhile, around 5,000 tenements were constructed on the land where project-affected people (PAP) have been living since then. But since the BMC failed to formally acquire the plot up to 2011, the trust issued a purchase notice. Even after a year, the BMC and the State government failed to acquire the plot.
In 2014, the trust moved the Bombay High Court to direct the BMC to return the land. In May 2018, the HC ruled in the trust’s favour, asking the civic body to hand over vacant possession within one year. The civic body appealed in the Supreme Court, but did not get relief.
The HC had also said that the State can initiate proceedings for acquisition under the law of compulsory acquisition within the one year. Thus, the municipal commissioner had written to Mumbai suburban district collector Sachin Kurve in October last year to initiate the process of compulsory acquisition under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act 2013.
Pursuant to the BMC follow-up, the collector office issued a notification on January 10. “Yes, we had written to the collector last year, and have deposited an amount for the acquisition. Any additional amount will be deposited as well. As per the court order, we are doing it within the stipulated period and hope the land will be transferred in our name,” an official from the Development Plan department said.
Once acquired, the civic body might consider redevelopment of the tenements with more FSI to accommodate more PAP. This redevelopment might make a large addition to the BMC’s pool of transit tenements.
A spokesperson for the trust said, “As per the HC judgement of May 3, 2018, vacant possession has to be handed over to the trust within one year. If any acquisition proceeding is initiated, the BMC has to make an application in the HC for modification of its order. The trust has not received any official communication of the acquisition.”
Activist Godfrey Pimenta said, “The BMC is doing this land acquisition just to show they have made an attempt to save the plot which they have anyway lost. Why did they fail to acquire it in time in the first place?”