After Centre stops car shed work at new site, MVA government, BJP accuse each other of slowing down Metro project
Aarey forest area. Pic/Satej Shinde
Buoyed by the Centre's missive to stop the Metro 3 car shed work at the Kanjurmarg land on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party challenged the Thackeray government to produce evidence showing that the State owns the new site.
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The ruling party at the Centre came under fire from the MVA partners for creating hurdles in the restructured Metro 3 plan, but the BJP blamed the state government for deliberately slowing the projects by making wrong moves such as claiming ownership rights to the Kanjurmarg land.
The Centre has told the Maharashtra government that the union government-controlled salt commissioner owns the Kanjurmarg site.
However, Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted on Tuesday, "The Kanjurmarg land allotted by the Collector to MMRDA for Car depot of Metro has always been with Govt of Maharashtra as per revenue records. The Collector, Mumbai Suburban has done due diligence of all land records and all sub-judice matters in all competent courts. The MMRDA will therefore carry on with its work for Metro joint Car Depots at Kanjurmarg as earlier decided."
NCP's national spokesperson and state minister Nawab Malik accused the BJP of conspiring to halt the project work through the Union government. "The concerned salt pan land belongs to the state and the project will take shape on that site itself. Initially, the BJP had said that the land is private. Now the Centre says that it owns it," Malik said.
"Seeing this, it seems that the BJP wants to lay roadblocks in the Metro work. The Kanjurmarg car shed will merge two lines of Mumbai and benefit 20 lakh people. It is clear now that the BJP has started conspiring to stop the project through the Centre," he claimed. Malik also said that as per his information, the Centre had in 2002 transferred several salt pan lands to the state government. "It is our government's land...The previous government had affirmed it," he said.
NCP MP Supriya Sule, too, insisted that the land belongs to Maharashtra. "It is unfortunate. The Centre is intervening in the development of Maharashtra. This is an injustice to Maharashtra" she said.
'MVA creating delusion'
BJP MLA Ashish Shelar said the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government is slowing down major infrastructure projects. "There is no information in the public domain that the state received this land from the department concerned to construct the Metro 3 car shed," he said. "Does the State have a hidden agenda in the name of shifting the car shed to Kanjurmarg? It looks like this government is creating a delusion about its functioning and is, in fact, slowing down major infrastructure projects," Shelar alleged.
The former state minister also alleged that the government has not given clear answers on whether a fresh development plan for the Kanjurmarg land has been prepared, or if the technical study has been completed.
Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya challenged the government to make public a fact-finding report by the expert committee led by additional chief secretary Manoj Saunik. "The report clearly states that the land is legally disputed. We had said so in the very beginning and the Centre's letter has vindicated our claim," he claimed, adding that the delay in Metro construction was only because of an ego trip and will cause a loss of R5,000 crore in the next five years.
"The MVA government knew of the loss estimated by the expert committee. The CM said he was giving the Kanjurmarg land for free, but is he telling the complete truth? The Saunik committee, CM's principal advisor Ajoy Mehta's committee and suburban district collector have said with documentary evidence that the Kanjurmarg land is disputed," Somaiya said, adding that the government didn't give him the committee reports under the Right To Information Act.
5k
Amount in crore said to be projected loss over Metro 3 delay
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