Kanjurmarg land belongs to Maha govt, asserts Aaditya Thackeray, sets off a showdown with Center

@vivekbhavsar

Mumbai: Refuting the claim of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIT) of the Central government, which has staked claim to the Kanjurmarg land, Maharashtra Minister of Environment, Aaditya Thackeray said that the land belongs to the government of Maharashtra and hence Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) will carry its work for Metro joint car depots on the land of Kanjurmarg.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ashish Shelar questioned has the state government transferred Kanjurmarg land from Salt commissioner? Shelar blamed the Thackeray government for trying to give access to salt pan land to private developers.

The DPIT has sent a letter to the Chief Secretary of the state and had asked to take necessary action and ask Mumbai Suburban collector to withdraw the order passed by him regarding handing over the Kanjurmarg land to MMRDA for construction of the Metro 3 car shed.

The letter sent by Guruprasad Mohapatra of DPIT has sparked off a row between Narendra Modi led Union National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state. 

On the other hand, the Salt Department has also claimed that the land belongs to them. BJP leader Ashish Shelar too said that there is a dispute over usage of the salt pan. “Several committees were formed but are not a single meeting, the guideline on how to use the salt pan land has been resolved,” said Shelar. He claimed that Thackeray government is working in favour of some developer who claims ownership on salt pan land.

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In a reply to the Central Government over its claim, Aaditya Thackeray posted two tweets and said that as per the record of revenue department, the land belongs to Maharashtra government.

Aaditya in his tweet stated, “The Kanjurmarg land allotted by the Collector to MMRDA for the Car depot of Metro has always been with the Government of Maharashtra as per revenue records. The Collector, Mumbai Suburban has done the due diligence of all land records and all sub-judice matters in all competent courts.” He further stated that the MMRDA will therefore carry on with its work for Metro joint Car Depots at Kanjurmarg as earlier decided.

The Thackeray government has scrapped the appraisal of erstwhile  Devendra Fadnavis led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -Shiv Sena coalition government to build the car shed on the land of Aarey forest. The Fadnavis government had cut down more than 3000 trees in the midnight to allocate the land for the car shed. 

However, the state cabinet chaired by CM Thackeray in the last month agreed to scrap the Aarey car shed and shift it to Kanjurmarg. 

CM had claimed the Kanjurmarg land has been available for a metro car shed free of cost. However, Fadnavis, Leader of Opposition had claimed the cost of the car shed project will be escalated due to switching of the car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg and the commuters have to compensate the financial burden from their pocket.

Meanwhile, the building of a compound wall at the 106 acre land of Kanjurmarg car shed has been started. The site of the car shed is adjacent to Eastern Express Highway near Kanjur gaon.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sunil Prabhu said, “This land belongs to the state government from past 60 years and I don’t know why the central government is having headaches.”

Prabhu further said this metro car shed will be beneficial to commuters staying at Kalyan and Dombivli. He claimed Kanjurmag project will save Rs. 4,500 crore. Talking about the letter which the central government has to send, Prabhu said, the state government will take decision accordingly and will think about legal aspects if needed.