PARKING SCAM: ‘Probe post-’08 parking deals’

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the state chief secretary to appoint a one-man committee to probe how the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation awarded contracts for pay-and-park facilities below flyovers in and around Mumbai despite a former chief minister banning them. Saying MSRDC officials took a “casual view of the security of Mumbai”, the high court has directed an inquiry to fix responsibility.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A R Joshi was hearing petitions by contractors whose parking deals in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai were terminated in April following the then CM’s order in August 2008, banning parking under flyovers owing to security threats. Incidentally, the MSRDC granted the contracts in 2009, even after being told about then CM’s order.

Appearing for a Mumbai contractor, senior counsel Anil Sakhare and advocate Joel Carlos said the MSRDC was aware of the ex-CM’s order before awarding the contract and so could not terminate it. Appearing for another set of contractors, advocates Avinash Fatangare and Mahendra Shingade said the termination was arbitrary as they were not given an opportunity to be heard.

Taking a serious note of the fact that the contracts were awarded despite the former CM’s order, a judge said, “MSRDC officers have committed a breach of the order”. The court also noted that the matter had been pending since April and the state had been a party to it, but taken no action.

On Wednesday, the judges asked assistant government pleader Ranjit Bhosale to take instructions on what action the state proposed to take. On Thursday, Bhosale said, “One day was too short to take instructions”. To this the bench observed, “This shows the seriousness of the security aspect on part of the government as well as the MSRDC.”

CM ‘relation’ allegation T he Bombay HC on Thursday directed activist Pravin Wategaonkar to file within four weeks an affidavit with documents to support his claims that a“close relation” of CM Prithviraj Chavan was “demanding money from builders” to approve proposals for public parking lots under a state policy.

Advocate-General Darius Khambata told a bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha that Wategaonkar had made no specific allegations or named anyone. “A person by name Rohan Jagdale, who is a close associate of the CM is involved,” Wategaonkar said. At this, the HC told him to support his allegations. TNN
Courtesy:
Rosy Sequeira TNN
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Parking Lot Scam: Find out who allowed parking under flyovers: HC to chief secy

Officials of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), who ignored the chief minister’s direction and awarded contracts for pay-and-park facility under flyovers in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, have come under the scanner.

The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the chief secretary to appoint a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer to conduct a probe into the matter and pinpoint the errant MSRDC officials.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice AR Joshi directed the state to take appropriate action against the officials. It also directed the MSRDC to file a compliance report before the court in December.

The open space under all the flyovers should be vacated by June 29, the court said.
The directions were given during the hearing of a bunch of petitions filed by contractors who were allotted to beautify the open space below the flyovers and use the area for pay-and-park and advertisements.

Additional public prosecutor Moldeina Thakhur said: “The chief minister had in July 2008, months before the 26/11 terror attack, given directions in view of the security threat.” However, MSRDC officials in 2009 had advertised the offer to beautify the open space below the flyovers.

In 2013, the MSRDC decided to foreclose the contract after an earlier high court order stopped the pay-and-park facility.

The court, while refusing to the grant any relief to the contractors, told them to approach a civil court for any relief or compensation.

PIL: Let CBI probe parking lot allotment scamA public interest litigation placed before the Bombay high court has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged corruption in allotment of public parking lots by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and urban development minister Bhaskar Jadhav.

The PIL alleges that the chief minister and the UDD minister have been charging exorbitant amounts for sanctioning proposals for allotment of public parking lots.

A division bench of justices Mohit Shah and MS Sanklecha, however, asked social activist Pravin Wategaonkar, who filed the PIL, to amend his petition, which will be considered by the high court in four weeks.

In the PIL, Wategaonkar has raised the issue of allotting the lots to certain developers when others who had submitted proposals earlier were kept waiting. Advocate general Darius Khambata informed the court that the proposals were thoroughly scrutinised and then allotted. “It is not done on a first-cum-first-serve basis. Queries were raised in 13 proposals and hence were sent back to BMC. Seven others are under consideration,” said Khambata.
Courtesy:
dna correspondent @dna
Published Date:  Jun 21, 2013
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Parking Lot Scam: 23K cr windfall in parking lots allotment: PIL

Mumbai: The urban development department, led by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, has given floor space worth nearly Rs 23,500 crore at commercial market value to private builders for just Rs 240 crore as allotments for public parking lots, a PIL filed in the Bombay high court alleged on Wednesday.

Litigant Pravin Wategaonkar said the developers or land owners, who are now entitled to 50% incentive FSI in lieu of construction of basement plus three levels of car parking, stand to benefit from 92 lakh square feet of buildable space. Wategaonkar alleged that the implementation of the state’s public parking policy since 2010 is mired in malpractice and arbitrariness. In his reply to the state’s recent affidavit, Wategaonkar requested for a probe by an agency like the CBI or an audit to see if there was any graft involved and to calculate “the loss to exchequer involved in the allotments”.

He said the allotments appeared to have gone largely to two developers whose group companies allegedly bagged four and two projects, respectively. Wategaonkar pointed out that the civic body was stonewalling his attempts to see the files of the last three approvals, which he alleged went to companies that belonged to one big builder.

Three proposals were approved last month. The state said 13 other proposals were pending at various stages. The PIL said the urban development minister was “withholding” approvals and indulged in corruption as alleged in the budget session of the legislature and reported in the media, and it needs to be inquired into.
Courtesy:
Swati Deshpande TNN
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