‘Traitors of Maratha Empire trump locals’

Rohit Pawar smells Rs 5K-cr land-scam in Navi Mumbai by minister

Mumbai: In an explosive allegation, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit R. Pawar has accused Urban Development Minister Sanjay Shirsat (Shiv Sena) of plotting a land scam of around Rs 5,000-cr intended to benefit a clan that once supported the British against the Maratha Empire.

A grand-nephew of NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Rohit Pawar said that the controversial Bivalkar family of Ratnagiri was originally gifted over 4000-acres land by the British rulers for helping them vis-à-vis the Maratha Empire.

Over decades since, under various laws and land reforms, the property was taken over by the state government, but the present title holder, architect Yashwant Bivalkar and his elder brother Gangadhar Bivalkar have locked horns with the authorities.

“However, despite this, the Bivalkar family attempted to reclaim those lands by manipulating records, filing court petitions and political lobbying. Their applications were rejected repeatedly in 1994, 1995, 2010 and 2023. But when Shirsat took over as CIDCO Chairman last year, he made the impossible as possible” claimed Rohit Pawar.

Displaying a bag filled with fake currency notes before media-persons, the NCP (SP) MLA alleged that “this was the style of ‘bag politics’ adopted to seal the deal”, implying cash transactions.

He added that in the very first CIDCO meeting as Chairman, Shirast cleared around 15 acres of prime land (at Ulwe) in Navi Mumbai to the Bivalkar family worth a staggering Rs 5,000-cr, in the vicinity of the new Navi Mumbai International Airport.

“This land parcel was reserved for constructing 10,000 affordable homes for the poor, but now a luxury building project is likely to come up there, sidelining the common masses,” pointed out Rohit Pawar.

Contending that there were several layers to the whole scam, Rohit Pawar said the Bivalkars – got the land gift (inaam) around 1816 - exploited legal loopholes since 1952 to convert a ‘political inaam’ into a ‘personal inaam’ and declaring parts as ‘reserved forest’ to skirt the Land Ceiling Act.

After the Maharashtra Private Forests Act of 1975 transferred the lands to the state, the Bivalkar family fought in the court and in 2014, the Bombay High Court gave a favourable verdict including a compensation amount, ostensibly due to a weak defence by the state, but later the CIDCO secured a stay from the Supreme Court.

“Despite the detailed history of repeated rejections, overlooking the fact that local project-affected farmers are fighting to get their rightful share of 12.5 pc land, the state government chose to hand it over to the descendants of the traitors of the Maratha Empire. This is committing a treachery against Maharashtra’s sons of the soil,” Rohit Pawar thundered.

The sensational allegations sparked widespread political outrage and other Opposition parties demanded an immediate rollback of the land dole to the Bivalkar family and resignation of Minister Shirsat.

Simultaneously Rohit Pawar has threatened to carry out an agitation with farmers and activists at the CIDCO headquarters on Aug. 20 (Wednesday) where they would grill the officialdom over the purported mega-land scandal.