Kalyan: In a bizarre case exposing glaring discrepancies in civic records, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has allegedly erased a nearly 50-year-old residential property from its official database while the house continues to stand at the same location with the family still living inside. Even more astonishingly, the civic body has refused to accept property tax, claiming the house was demolished years ago for road widening—an assertion the family vehemently denies.
Administrative Questions
The case has raised serious questions over KDMC's record-keeping, administrative accountability, and the legal status of properties that exist physically but have mysteriously disappeared from municipal records.
The property located near Gujarati Mandir in Govindwadi belongs to the Sheikh family, which claims to have occupied the house for nearly five decades. According to Tabassum Shaikh the property was originally registered in her father's name and the family had been regularly paying house tax and electricity bills for years without any dispute.
Controversy Emerges
The controversy surfaced in 2008 when family members visited the KDMC tax department to pay property tax. Officials allegedly refused to accept the payment, stating that the house had already been demolished during a road widening project and therefore no longer existed in municipal records.
The family's claim, however, paints an entirely different picture.
Our house has never been demolished. We are still living in the same house. If the building was never removed, how did it disappear from KDMC's records? Tabassum Shaikh questioned.
Repeated Follow-Ups
Since 2008, the family has been making repeated visits to the civic office, requesting officials to restore the property's entry in municipal records. Despite submitting documents and following up with various departments over the years, they claim no concrete action has been taken.
Adding another twist to the episode the family alleged that KDMC accepted pending property tax in 2023, only to later refuse further tax payments once again, citing the same reason that the house had supposedly been demolished during road widening.
The contradictory stand has left the family puzzled.
If the property no longer existed, why did the corporation accept outstanding tax in 2023? And if it accepted the tax then, why is it refusing to do so now? the family asked.
The issue has now reached the political arena. The Shaikh family approached Shiv Sena (UBT) group leader Umesh Borgaonkar who termed the matter extremely serious and demanded a thorough investigation into how an existing property could vanish from official records.
On Thursday members of the family submitted a written representation to Balasaheb Chavan Deputy Commissioner of KDMC's Tax Department, seeking immediate correction of municipal records and restoration of the property's legal status.
Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Chavan said The matter has come to my notice. Only after a detailed inquiry will it become clear how and why this happened. We will conduct a complete investigation.
The case has triggered several unanswered questions. If KDMC had been collecting property tax for years before 2008, what led officials to suddenly classify the house as demolished? Why was pending tax accepted in 2023 if the property had ceased to exist in official records? And how can a house that continues to receive electricity supply and has decades of tax receipts be treated as non-existent by the civic body?
For now, the Sheikh family continues to live in a house that physically exists but, according to municipal records, apparently does not—waiting for KDMC to explain one of the most unusual administrative anomalies to surface in recent years.
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