In what could add to the woes of newly sworn-in union minister Narayan Rane, the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry has ordered the
Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) to cross check if his lavish bungalow at Malvan is legal or not. This comes after a Pune activist Pradeep Bhalekar filed a complaint with the ministry earlier this month.
Written to the member secretary of MCZMA, the letter draws attention to the complaint filed by Bhalekar against the plush "Neelratna" bungalow constructed near the Chivla beach, Malvan, at Sindhudurg. "It is requested to instruct the concerned authorities to take necessary action (on the complaint). The information on action taken may kindly be provided to the complainant (Bhalekar) under intimation to this office," reads the letter written by Suresh Adapa, Scientist-D.
According to Bhalekar's complaint, the Rane family, by constructing this bungalow near Chivla beach, have breached the provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), which prohibits construction near water bodies. "Now, after this letter, the officials from the ministry's Nagpur office visited the bungalow site along with the MCZMA personnel. I am told that the collector and tehsildar would now conduct a panchnama (measurements) of the site and the bungalow," Bhalekar said.
