Societies to protest over govt land lease issues on Thursday

Mumbai: Unmoved by the assurances given by state revenue minister Chandrakant Patil on the government taking a fair decision regarding government land lease issues soon, residents of several co-operative societies situated on collector’s land have decided to protest at the suburban collector’s office in Bandra on Thursday. 

Some irate residents said that the government has not taken any decision since three years and is only giving false assurances. The protest may create political problem for the BJP because there are 3,000 societies in Mumbai that are situated on government leased land. BJP Mumbai chief MLA Ashish Shelar discussed the issue with the revenue minister recently. 

Residents of several registered housing societies that are on government land said that they want to convert lease lands of class 2 category into class 1 in order to get benefits of ownership. 

The residents have been raising this demand for the past few years, and had even met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and MP Poonam Mahajan. 

Salil Rameshchandra, convener of societies action committee and president of Shivshrushti said that government is not taking any decision. Recently, the suburban collector issued orders to the deputy registrar of stamps stating that any sale or rental document of flats on government leased land should not be registered without a ‘No objection of certificate’ from the collector. 

“Similar directions are given to the housing societies office bearers that they should not issue NOCs till NOC from collector office is there. Residents have to pay charges for each transaction. So the revenue department is harassing residents and government is not taking any decision,” said Mr Rameshchandra. 

There are 3000 housing societies in Mumbai and 20,000 in the state that are situated on land leased by the government. In case the government allows the conversion by taking small amount, which is monitisation of government land, it could lead to problems. 

In view of the political ramifications, Mr Shelar from the BJP recently met Mr Patil. The latter gave the assurance to resolve the issue. “But residents are not satisfied with the BJP leader’s assurances, they want implementation. So they are firm on the agitations on Thursday at suburban collector office at 10 am,” said sources.