No projects should be considered on Wanowrie land
Even as the issue of a 48-acre Mahar Watan land in Wanowrie is pending before Revenue Minister Narayan Rane,the Mahar Watandar Sanghatana has demanded that the government should not even consider a project on the land.
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Even as the issue of a 48-acre Mahar Watan land in Wanowrie is pending before Revenue Minister Narayan Rane,the Mahar Watandar Sanghatana has demanded that the government should not even consider a project on the land. The Harshvardhan Group of Companies had planned a commercial-cum-residential project on the land.
The sanghatana alleged that the group had put up fences in the area even as the government had stayed the project. Its leader Ravindra Sonawane said,in a circular,that only 40 per cent of the land had been acquired from watandars while the remaining 60 per cent was not even considered. All the watandars have not given up their land to the company as claimed. Even as the PMC has issued a notice that they should construct a compound wall,the company has gone ahead by putting up temporary fences.
A Mahar Watan land,granted to people by the government,cannot be sold without the permission of the divisional commissioner/district collector. The prime land has a current valuation of nearly Rs 350 crore. The state government had taken over the land from watandars in 1957. In 1995,former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh took up the issue of regranting the land. In 2002,then revenue minister Ramraje Nimbalkar allotted four acres to the SRPF from this land,which was regranted to watandars later.
Harshvardhan Group chairman and managing director Parag Deshmukh said it had maintained the status quo and there was no movement on construction on the above land. We are awaiting the final decision of the minister.
In an earlier order,the Revenue Minister had maintained that watandars were entitled to erect compound walls on the said land and they can also seek police protection for the same. The group had also sought a stay order on notices issued by the Pune Municipal Corporation for the development of the land. The PMC had issued notices under Section 260 (1) of the BPMC Act and under Section 53 (1) of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act,1966. Since no permission was taken,the PMC wanted the group to remove the fences and boards put up on the plot.
The issue came to the fore after residents opposed the project on the land,which was being used for exercise and community interactions. On July 8,2008,the departments of Revenue and Forest had stayed the sale of this land (survey No 64),which in effect renders null and void the sale of the land in the presence of collector and watandars on June 17 last year. However,a section of watandars has claimed that only two of the seven signatories were present during the sale.
The builder had issued a public notice that the land was going to be used only for agriculture purposes,but the group had also printed brochures with plans to develop the area under the name Eledora,with shopping malls,multiplex,restaurants,corporate park and a star hotel with exclusive apartment units. Members of the NIBM Citizen Forum had sought the intervention of the Chief Minister into the issue.
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