HC’s intervention sought in Goregaon land scam

MUMBAI, MAR 21: An alert citizen Bhagvanji Raiyani has moved the Bombay High Court against Aditya Constructions and Developers Limited (A...

MUMBAI, MAR 21: An alert citizen Bhagvanji Raiyani has moved the Bombay High Court against Aditya Constructions and Developers Limited (ACDPL) and the state government following reports in Express Newsline that the construction company reneged on its promise to build a court building in lieu of clearance to develop a 10 lakh sq feet plot at Goregaon (east).

Raiyani has filed a writ petition in the HC seeking directives to ACDPL to commence and complete the court building within a time-frame and at a rate of construction to be fixed by the court. The petition is slated to come up for hearing on Monday.

Surprisingly, the government, especially the Housing Department, has not initiated any action against ACDPL. In fact, Housing Minister Suresh Jain has now allowed the company to develop, for commercial purposes, half of the original 1,03,060 sq ft plot meant for the court building.

Raiyani, a civil engineer himself, says in his petition: “This scam of stalling the construction of court is biggerthan the Pune land scam involving former CM Manohar Joshi and his son-in-law Girish Vyas. A panel of experts should be appointed to probe the causes of failure of execution of the contract for construction of court at Goregaon by ACDPL and resultant monetary loss to the state exchequer. The role of different CMs, ministers of housing and other government officials in the dealings should also be fixed. The ACDPL should be asked to commence construction and complete the court building at Goregaon within a stipulated time. If that is not possible, ACDPL be directed to pay compensation to the state exchequer.”