TOLLGATE: Pressure on Chavan to scrap booths with eye on elections

Mumbai: Pressure is building on chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to remove toll booths in and around the metropolis if he is serious about providing relief to the aam admi, a day after he declared that he was prepared to amend the policy.

A senior bureaucrat said if Chavan, public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation chairman Jaidutta Kshirsagar are keen to provide relief to people, they must initiate steps for the removal of booths at Mulund, Airoli, Vashi, LBS Marg and Dahisar.

“The government must initiate steps for the removal of booths. It must negotiate with the entrepreneur, who has the contract for collection of toll. Pay him the entire amount of Rs 3,000 crore and remove the booths, it will help the ruling party in the Lok Sabha polls,’’ the bureaucrat said.

Mumbai Entry Point Limited managing director Jayant Mhaiskar said the proposal was acceptable. “No doubt, we will have to examine if there is a buy-back clause, but I am ready for an agreement in larger public interest,’’ Mhaiskar told TOI.

He said they entered into an agreement for maintenance of 27 flyovers in and around Mumbai and setting up of infrastructure projects at a cost of Rs 2,100 crore, and in lieu secured a contract for collection of toll at the five booths. “It’s a publicprivate partnership project. We have been given rights for collection up to 2026. If the government feels the contract should be terminated, it should pay us Rs 3,000 crore,’’ Mhaiskar said.

Mhaiskar, who was never called by Chavan for negotiations or a discussion on the agitation launched by MNS, said the government can provide relief to people if it accepts the Madhya Pradesh model. “There is no toll for private vehicles on twolane roads; only commercial vehicles have to pay in MP,’’ he said.

Mhaiskar said it appeared the agitation was against government policy and not against an individual developer. “The PPP model has been accepted all over. The state government will not abolish it,’’ he said.

A senior NCP minister said Chavan had to draft a plan for abolition of booths at least in and around Mumbai, or the Congress would have to pay a heavy price in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls. “Funds can be mobilized from Mhada or MMRDA, which have surplus,” he said.
Courtesy:
Prafulla Marpakwar TNN
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Kejriwal’s party targets Bhujbals over Mhada land :

NCP Minister’s Family Denies Any Irregularity

Mumbai: In a veiled attack on PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headed by social activist Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday alleged that the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) lost prime land worth a few crores after it failed to stop Bhavesh Builders Pvt Ltd from constructing a commercial complex on a 802 sq-m plot meant for residential use in 2003. Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and nephew Samir were directors of Bhavesh Builders from October 3, 1994 till September 7, 2009 as per company details available on the ministry of corporate affairs’ website.

“This public land was given by Mhada at a throwaway price. It seems land grabbing is easy if you are a minister in the state cabinet. You can get land allocated and change land use blatantly without any accountability,’’ the AAP said in a statement.

Samir denied any irregularity in the deal. “I have not sold any premises in the commercial complex. I do not remember the details of this deal as it is over five years old. I was just appointed as a contractor by Tulsi co-operative housing society to construct the commercial building. If the plot was for residential use, then I assume the society would have got Mhada’s permission to convert it to commercial,’’ he said.

Mhada vice president Satish Gavai said he would have to look into the issue. Niranjan K Sudhanshu, chief officer of Mhada’s Mumbai board, told TOI that the authority had sent a notice of recovery for Rs 1.94 crore to Tulsi on November 3, 2012 for changing the land use from residential to commercial. “The land was given to Tulsi for residential purpose. The residential use was then allowed to be changed to commercial in February 2005. There is no agreement between the said developer and Mhada,” said Sudhanshu.

The case dates back to 2001 when it was proposed to form a co-operative housing society named Tulsi. The society applied to Mhada for a residential plot next to the police station in Oshiwara to construct residential houses for its members.

In October 2002, Mhada allotted the 0plot to Tulsi for the purpose of residential use. In May 2003, Mhada and Tulsi registered the lease agreement. In February 2003, Tulsi entered into a development agreement with Bhavesh Builders, giving them the complete right to develop and dispose of the property in any way they deem fit.

The building that came up on the plot was not residential, but a commercial complex, Platinum Court. “This commercial property is worth more than Rs 200 crore and does not have a single original member of Tulsi. We believe the premises has reportedly been sold by Bhavesh Builders,” the AAP claimed.

The deal, said the AAP, has raised many questions. “On what grounds did Mhada give the prime plot to Tulsi? Why did the society give all the rights of the property to a developer for no consideration, which begs the question if Tulsi was just a front for the builder to get land at a throwaway price from Mhada,” asked AAP volunteer Sanjay Parmar, who has gleamed some of the records under the RTI Act.

Courtesy:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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