The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the state government to file its reply to a PIL seeking a Crime Investigation Department (CID) probe into the alleged fraudulent allotment of six plots, reserved for police personnel.
The plots have been given to a group of legislators and bureaucrats at upscale Worli Sagar Housing Society in south Mumbai.
A division bench of justices PV Hardas and Ajey Gadkari directed the government to file a reply within two weeks while hearing a PIL filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar. The judges, who had directed Tirodkar to add the society as a respondent, clarified that a notice would be issued to Worli Sagar later, if required.
Tirodkar had filed the PIL in October 2013, seeking a CID probe into the alleged irregularity. He approached the court after receiving details from the home department under the Right to Information Act. According to the RTI reply, the state government had acquired six plots in Worli Sagar in 1988 to provide houses to MLAs and bureaucrats in lieu of another piece of land in Andheri for policemen’s housing.
While the Worli land was originally meant for police personnel, Tirodkar alleged that even the plot admeasuring 48,560sqm at Ambivli in Andheri was never handed over to the beneficiaries.
The PIL prays that the director general of police (housing) be directed to evacuate the buildings on plots at Worli Sagar and allot the flats to lower rank policemen on the basis of seniority.
Constables work long hours in difficult conditions and they should be given priority in such benefits, says the PIL.
What RTI reply said
According to the RTI reply, the state government had acquired six plots in Worli Sagar in 1988 to provide houses to MLAs and bureaucrats in lieu of another piece of land in Andheri for policemen’s housing.
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