Land sharks eyeing salt pans

Salt dept receives complaint about fraudulent sales near Vasai area.

It has emerged that an unidentified group of people have been attempting to sell tracts of 208-acre saltpans at Rai-Murdhe villages near Vasai.

The saltpans are owned by the salt department of India, governed by the ministry of commerce and industry (department of industrial policy and promotion).

In the last week of March, the deputy salt commissioner’s office of Maharashtra received a written complaint, informing them about the fraudulent buying and selling of saltpans. Acting on the complaint, the officials immediately informed the district registrar that the government owns the land and anybody involved in such activities would attract civil and criminal action.

However, the salt department has not made any attempt to enquire about the parties involved in the activity, as it is yet to file a police complaint against unknown persons.

The salt superintendent of Bhayander area under whose jurisdiction the villages fall seemed unfazed and termed the attempt “an usual activity”.

“Things like these keep happening; we don’t take serious note of it. Right now, I do not have any information about such activities,” said Rajiv Singh, the salt superintendent.

However, senior officials from the salt department said they were taking all possible measures to salvage the land. “We had received the notification about illegal buying and selling of the land (survey no: 261) and we immediately notified the concerned land registration authorities to keep a watch on the same. We have no idea about the people involved, but it is serious as the land belongs to the government of India,” said J.P. Singh, deputy salt commissioner, Mumbai.

The land is large enough to occupy nine Oval Maidans. Mr Singh also said that if caught, the people involved would attract ‘civil and criminal liabilities’.

The salt department has an area spread over 13,061 acres in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Sindhudurg across Maharashtra.

Mumbai and Thane alone manufactured about 1,50,459 kg of salt in 2014-15. The saltpans of both the districts have been leased out to private organisations to manufacture and produce salt on behalf of the government of India.