The Bombay High Court today gave a final opportunity to Maharashtra government to submit by January 22 the final list of allottees or their family members allotted houses twice or multiple times from the Chief Minister's discretionary housing quota.
A bench headed by Justice Oka said this was the final chance being given to the state to file the list as well as the compliance report and added that no further extension would be given in this regard. Advocate General Darius Khambata, who appeared for the state, sought time to submit such a list following which the bench directed the government to comply with the directive by January 22. The bench was hearing a PIL filed by ex-scribe Ketan Tirodkar challenging double allotment of flats from CM's quota.
On December 5, the state had filed a list of allottees of 9 urban Agglomerations, viz Greater Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Ulhasnagar, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur However, the court was not satisfied with this list and had asked the state to cross verify the names of allottees in one urban Agglomeration with the other. The list has not been submitted yet and for which the time has been sought.
On last occasion, the court had told the petitioner that the list of double allottees of flats should pertain to both categories of CM's quota viz 5 per cent in regard to flats under Urban Land Ceiling Act and 2 per cent on flats built by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.
The petitioner alleged politicians and journalists were the main beneficiaries of such allotments. He said "resourceful" people were allotted flats at concessional rates from the Chief Minister's discretionary quota, while the needy and common people were ignored.
Tirodkar gave examples of journalist-couples, who were allotted adjacent flats and cited names of some politicians and their kin who were given flats under the CM's quota.
The petitioner annexed to his PIL, a reply received under the Right To Information (RTI) Act from the government, which included names of allottees from 1989 to 2010. However, it did not contain names of multiple allottees.
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