A letter, dated January 15, 2016, sent to Ms Malini by the Mumbai Suburban Collector said that her trust does not have proof that it has 25% of the estimated project cost (around Rs 18.48 crore), which needed to be submitted to the collector’s office before taking possession of the plot.
The collector has also demanded proof that the trust has the remaining 75 per cent. The letter, obtained under Right to Information by RTI activist Anil Galgali, also says that the BJP MP has not returned the plot at Versova previously allotted to her trust.
Mr. Galgali has written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis questioning the government’s decision to apply the ready reckoner rates of 1976, instead of current rates.
The trust had previously demanded a 1,741.89 sq m plot at Versova; in 1997, the Revenue department ordered the collector to hand over the plot on an undertaking that the trust would pay the cost of the land. Possession was given to the trust in April 1997, and it paid the collector Rs 10 lakh in January 2002. However, the Versova land fell in the Coastal Zone Regulation area — where no construction is permitted — so the trust asked for a 5,000 sq m plot at Ambivli in Andheri. On July 30, 2010, the Urban Development Department sanctioned the modification of the designation of around 2,000 sq m, out of 29,360.50 sq m plot originally reserved for a garden.
In the last week of December 2015, state Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse announced the decision to hand over plot to the trust to build a dance academy, under conditions which included: the trust must complete construction within two years of getting possession of the land; the land cannot be used for profit; the trust must submit 25 per cent of the construction cost to the collector, with proof that it has the remainder; and it must develop and maintain, with its own money, a garden that must be kept open for citizens.
