‘If Lavasa, why not us?’

MUMBAI: People residing on private forest land in the city have threatened to protest the state government’s lackadaisical attitude towards regularizing their homes. They claimed that the government’s inaction had affected nearly five lakh middleclass residents in Mulund, Thane, Borivli, Kandivli and Malad. They are angry that while the government moved with alacrity to obtain clearance for the Lavasa hill station project, their issue was not even being attempted to be addressed.
"A house for any person in India is the biggest investment in life. How can the state treat us with such callousness when we are not even at fault and government agencies are responsible for the mess," said an activist of the Hillside Residents’ Welfare Association (HIRWA). The Bombay high court had declared vast tracts in those areas as private forest land after a public interest litigation was filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) in 2008. The residents had challenged the order in the Supreme Court (SC), which set up a central-empowered committee to look into their grievances.
In 2010, the committee recommended that residents who booked flats in these areas pay a penalty of Rs 6-120 per square feet as net present value (NPV), which was to be used for afforestation in other parts of the state.
The SC, in an interim order in 2010, had said that the constructions could be regularized if the ministry of environment & forests permitted it. "We paid the money to the forest department nearly 18 months ago. The state government must approach the environment ministry and obtain its concurrence to regularize our homes," said HIRWA president Prakash Paddigal.
Principal secretary (forests) Praveen Pardeshi said the matter was before the SC and the government could not take any decision unless it gave its final verdict.
Pardeshi said that the NPV had also been challenged in court. The residents, he said, had been charged on the basis of loss of less dense forest. "The Centre pointed out that since the Sanjay Gandhi National Park was adjoining that land, the amount should have been charged as is done for dense forests. We have not charged them for the land considering that land in Mumbai is at a premium," he said, adding that the government had filed an affidavit in the SC with reference to the NPV.
Paddikal pointed out that those residing in those housing societies were affected only while selling flats but there were thousands who had booked in those areas with no assurance of getting their homes soon. Jayraj Nair, who booked a flat in Mulund in 2005 and is awaiting possession, said, "There are many retired people who invested their life’s savings and cannot afford to live on rent in Mumbai."