Mumbai: The row over the proposed allotment of three reserved open spaces, spread across 16 acres in Juhu and Andheri West, has intensified. While activists and political leaders have urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to cancel the proposed lease to the Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) trust, BJP MLC Amrish Patel has sought the CM’s intervention to prevent its cancellation by the BMC and MHADA.
Dispute over open space allotment
MHADA has allotted the trust two plots in Juhu and DN Nagar, Andheri, measuring nearly four acres in total. The BMC subsequently proposed allotting another 12-acre plot in Andheri West.
After the trust’s bid lapsed on August 1, the civic body extended its validity by six months, despite officials earlier stating that bids are valid for six months, after which an unaccepted tender must be cancelled and reissued.
SVKM seeks government intervention
Patel, also a trustee of SVKM, which runs institutions including Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), urged Fadnavis in his letter to ask Bhide and Jaiswal not to take any “adverse action” based on BJP MLA Ameet Satam’s objection to the allotments, saying it could affect the interests of SVKM-NMIMS’s 30,000 students.
“Your decision has been for providing sports and physical education facilities for the 30,000 students of SVKM NMIMS of Mumbai,” Patel wrote, asserting that the allotments had been made after due legal procedure and fulfilment of eligibility criteria.
Meanwhile, the CM, in a remark on the letter, directed municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide and MHADA vice-president and CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal, which owns two of the plots, to examine the request and “do the needful.”
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Opposition to proposed allotments
The allotments have also been opposed by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray and RTI activist Anil Galgali, who has urged the government to retain all three plots as reserved open spaces and keep them accessible to the public, as mandated under the Development Plan.
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