Thane: A 70-year-old NRI has been running from pillar to post to reclaim his 2,185sqm plot in Dombivali’s Daulat Niwas from an unknown builder, who allegedly usurped it and built a residential complex.
Feroz Kanchwala, now a resident of Breach Candy, said that he bought the plot under survey number 238/2/R at Mauje in Kalyan on Dec 24, 1965 through a conveyance deed from one Govind Ramchandra Sawant and others. He later moved to London with his glass business and settled there with his wife in 1966.
After over 55 years, when he returned to his home country in 2016, he found a complex standing on his plot. He now regrets that he did not fence it and neither did he visit.
Since 2016, Mr Kanchwala has been making rounds of various government agencies but his efforts have been futile. He said, “I complained to the MMRDA commissioner, the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) Commissioner, Thane district Collector, Tahsildar of Kalyan and Deputy Commissioner of Police of Kalyan-Dombivali but no action has been taken.”
He said he also wrote to former chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray, and has now approached Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, but has received no help, let alone a sympathetic ear.
“Under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (1966), action should be taken against people who have encroached land and built upon them. Such structures should also be demolished on a priority basis,” said Mr Kanchwala, whose daughter lives in London and can’t assist her father in follow-ups.
On Sep 16, 2022, Mr Kanchwala wrote to ward officials, asking them to survey the plot and initiate strict action for illegal construction. The letter was duly received by Additional Commissioner of Zone-2 of KDMC Swati Deshpande, with a copy marked to KDMC Commissioner Dr Bhausaheb Dangade.
However, Mr Dangade did not respond to calls and messages from this newspaper.
