FIR Against Six for Duping Government by Selling Notified Land, More Culprits and Acxtual Buyers on Radar. Pick-&-Choose Policy Under Scanner.
The skeleton of yet another massive Urban Land ( Ceiling & Regulation) Act-ULCRA, scam has stumbled out in the open in Mira Road. The Navghar police has registered a FIR against six land owners for allegedly breaching the ULCRA rules. Based on a complaint by Nitin Jadhav-Assistant Town Planner (Thane Urban Agglomeration), the police filed a FIR under the relevant sections of the IPC against six people- Nita Patil. Jitendra Patil, Rupesh Patil, Leena Patil, Harischandra Patil and Kantilal Patil for illegally selling and transferring rights of notified land admeasuring 8280 sq.mt in Navghar village.
While no arrests have been made so far, the pick and choose police adopted by the government agency is also under the scanner. The accused inked a deed of conveyance with a local developer who later transferred the rights of the notified land to Gujarat Enterprise, thus breaching section 20 (rule 9) of the ULCRA Act. “Yes, a FIR has been registered, further investigations are on,” said Senior Police Inspector Ram Bhalsingh.
Passed in 1976, the ULCRA was aimed at preventing profiteering through massive land hoarding and to create affordable housing for the weaker section. The act mandated developers to hand over 5% of the flats/surrender surplus land for public housing. Although ULCRA was scrapped in 2008, developers and landowners cannot escape liability of surrendering their excess land. The law which prohibits transfer of urban property, clearly states that notices are to be given before transfer of vacant land. Taking advantage of the skewed policy of the repealed ULCRA several developers and land owners, like in this case minted crores of rupees by trading hundreds of acres of notified land falling under the ceiling limit. 1,022 layouts had been approved under ULCRA scheme in revenue villages including-Bhayandar, Khari, Goddev, Navghar, Mire, Mahajanwadi, Penkarpada, Kashi, Ghodbunder and Versave that fall under the limits of the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation.