Ousted chief minister Ashok Chavan’s resignation appears to have done little to put an end to his woes. It has now come to light that Chavan had given flats to five Bollywood personalities in breach of rules.
Ousted chief minister Ashok Chavan’s resignation appears to have done little to put an end to his woes. It has now come to light that Chavan had given flats to five Bollywood personalities in breach of rules.
In a written reply to a question asked in the ongoing winter session of the state assembly, the Mumbai board of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has accepted that at Chavan’s behest, artists were given the authority’s subsidised houses despite owning property in the city.
In May, Chavan gave away Mhada houses to 15 actors, technicians and those from the film industry using his special quota. However, it was revealed in media reports that some of these actors already own houses, and only 10 were actually eligible.
According to the authority, the name of Sonali Kulkarni, an upcoming Marathi actor, was included in the list by the chief minister at the last moment. Reshma Tipnis, another Bollywood actor, was also given a house.
Kulkarni had written a letter to Chavan asking him to take back a tenement allotted to her in Chembur in exchange of an apartment in Versova.
In Tipnis’s case, it was revealed that she already owns a Mhada flat in Goregaon, but withheld the information while submitting an affidavit to the authority. Tipnis is yet to respond to a letter enquiring why she asked for another house despite owning one.
The chief officer of the Mumbai board has confirmed that the process of allotment of houses to both Tipnis and Kulkarni has been stayed.
Comedians Raju Srivastava and Naveen Prabhakar were also given houses in spite of being in possession of a flat. Similarly, a second house was also wrongly allotted to veteran classical singer Gangubai Hangal, reveals the answer submitted in the house, a copy of which is with DNA.
“All the three allotments were cancelled since these artists were not qualified for a Mhada house as they already own one,” says the written answer given by the Mumbai board chief officer.
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