An RTI query has revealed that the Mumbai District Football Association’s (MDFA’s) claim of having a plot of land allotted at Bandra Reclamation is false.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), in its reply to the RTI plea, has said that the plot where MDFA built a boundary wall and started levelling work since the beginning of the year has neither been allotted to anyone nor been transferred from any other authority, including Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), public works department or Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).
Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray is the head of MDFA and had made the claim about the allotment of the ground two years ago.
According to the RTI applicant, at the start of 2016, a large board had been put up in the name of the MDFA on an open plot of land adjacent to Rang Sharda Auditorium at Bandra Reclamation, announcing the christening of the plot as Neville D’souza Football Turf. The board further said that it was due to the efforts of Aaditya Thackeray that the work on the levelling of the ground and building of a boundary wall was started.
But the reply to the RTI plea stated, “With reference to your request, you are informed that MMRDA has not allotted any plot to MDFA in Bandra (W), next to Rang Sharda or at any other place in the entire Bandra Reclamation area, and possession of any parcel of land is not transferred from any other authority like Mhada, PWD or MCGM to MMRDA.”
When contacted, Aaditya Thackeray was not reachable for comment. Neither did he respond to messages. Similarly, MDFA secretary Udayan Banerjee also did not respond to repeated calls and messages.
