Amidst controversy over his society being allotted land at dirt cheap rates by the Maharashtra Government, Union Minister Rajiv Shukla on Tuesday said he has decided not to take the land at Juhu in Mumbai. But, he claimed it was due to the society’s inability to take possession of the land due to encroachment of slums.
The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs said he has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on December 4 that the land allotted to a society co-founded by him be taken back as no activity could be started because of encroachment.
“Actually, the land which was allotted, was fully encroached by slums and despite all efforts over the last five years, it has still got several slum clusters. So the society is not able to take actual possession of the land to start any activity or construction,” he said.
He asserted that no irregularity has been committed as hundreds of educational societies have been allocated land under the same provision.
“There is no question of any commercial value as the whole idea was to build a primary school there,” Shukla said.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had alleged in Mumbai on Monday that the Maharashtra government had allotted two plots to Shukla’s educational society for a pittance.
He also alleged that according to officials from the State revenue department the file which had the information on the land allotment to Shukla was untraceable.
Somaiya had said the BAG films education society got registered in October 2006. “In July 2007, then Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, as a “special case”, directed to allot the land to Shukla’s company,” he said.