Battle royale over prime Thane land

TMC seeks ACB probe; developer says nothing illegal, ready to build Marathi medium municipal school
The general body meeting of the

Thane Municipal Corporation

(TMC) on Thursday had a long and heated debate over the sale of a prime plot worth crores of rupees, which was in TMC’s possession being sold to a private developer.

The corporators from the Shiv Sena, BJP, and the NCP discussed why the corporation has allowed the land, where a municipal school stood till it was demolished in 2011, to be developed by a private developer when the land belongs to it. The political leaders demanded that the TMC make all-out efforts to retain the 15,200 sq m plot, and sought a probe.

When Mumbai Mirror probed further, it emerged that the plot originally belonged to

Salehbhai Habibullah Trust

which was registered in 1915. “In 1978-79, the Thane municipal authorities approached the trust to purchase the land for a municipal school for a price of Rs 17 lakh, but our records show they paid some amount, but never completed the purchase despite repeated letters from us,” says Anil M Waghadkar, who was given the power of attorney by the trust in 2011-12 and is also the director of Cleverland Properties LLP which later purchased the land from the trust.

The municipal authorities built municipal school no. 7 on 3,000 sq m of the plot and ran it till 2011 when the dilapidated structure was partly demolished. In the intervening years, this plot was also reserved for school and playground.

In October 2017, based on a proposal by a Jain community trust Jito Education and

Medical Trust

, the TMC general body passed resolution 1208, allowing the plot to be given to it on a 30-year lease for building a school, and a hospital. The Jito Trust also put up a board at the plot.

Meanwhile, the

Habibullah Trust

approached the Charity Commissioner seeking its permission to sell the plot on the ground that they are unable to protect the plot from encroachment. On November 12, 2018, the Joint Charity Commissioner said that the validity of its previous order in 1979 allowing the land to be sold to TMC has lapsed as TMC failed to complete the purchase. It also allowed 21,091 sq m, which includes 15,200 sq m, to be sold to the highest bidder among four bids received from developers. On December 10, 2020, the trust sold the land to Cleverland Properties LLP on as-is-where-is basis.

On December 16, 2020, the TMC’s property department wrote to Rabodi police station alleging that Waghadkar was trying to encroach on a plot that TMC has given to Jito Education and Medical Trust, and a cognizable offence be lodged against him. When summoned, Waghadkar presented the relevant land documents showing the names of the Habibullah Trust and Cleverland Properties LLP. However, despite three reminders, TMC failed to present any documents before the Rabodi police.

Finally, in July 2021, the Rabodi police refused to lodge an FIR till the TMC produces the documents backing its claim.

“The land may have been in possession of TMC all these years, but that does not mean they own it. If they own it, why can’t they produce the revenue records? Even the

Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal

had in September 2019 clearly affirmed that the land belonged to the trust for 100 years,” says Waghadkar.

He said as per Development Control Rules for school reservation plots, the landowner is allowed to surrender 40 per cent of the land free of cost and free of encumbrances to the government provided he gets to develop the rest. “We are ready to even construct a quality Marathi school for the TMC at a time when Marathi schools are shrinking in numbers,” Waghadkar told Mumbai Mirror.

When contacted,

TMC Public Relations Officer

Sandeep Malwi said, “The Uthalsar plot was in possession of TMC for 40 years, and there was a municipal school on the plot. So there is no question that the plot belongs to the TMC. Somebody has altered the documents, and we have written to Anti-Corruption Bureau seeking a probe into what happened. We have also written to Collector and the Divisional Commissioner to look into the matter.”

NCP’s Leader of the Opposition Ashraf Shanu Pathan said, “It appears that the TMC’s resolution 1208 allowing Jito Trust to develop the land was passed in a hurry without first transferring the conveyance of the land in its name. The market value of the plot is Rs 2,300 crore today and in the past too, the TMC has lost such prime plots to trusts.”