The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) used public funds to fill up a 100-year-old pond and build a garden and musical fountain on the site. Though the plot belongs to the collector and not the BMC, officials encroached the pond and carried out the development at the cost of Rs. 5.25 crore without necessary permission.
Instead of reviving water bodies that are disappearing in the city, the BMC filled the 100-year-old Khajuria Pond at Kandivali west with debris. Residents of the area claim that the old pond was supposed to be a heritage property. Ex-corporator from the area and present MLA of the area Yogesh Sagar, from the BJP, had taken up the issue of the site’s development.
“The ex-corporator and present BJP MLA, along with Congress ex-corporator Baldev Singh Mankoo, converted the pond popularly known as Khajuria Talao into a park, hand in hand with the BMC officials. The BMC has also not put a board at the garden, in spite of knowing that the property belongs to the collector. We have approached the high court and have filed a PIL against the BMC for doing such an act. How can a civic body do such a thing?”asks Pankaj Kotecha, a Kandivali resident. He adds that the court has questioned 13 concerned authorities, including the municipal commissioner, garden department, top BMC officials, the collector’s office, ward officer, officials from state government, revenue department and urban development department.
