And this, at a time when the prominent city firm, Avinash Bhosale Infrastructure Ltd (ABIL), has promised to respect public reservations on Survey No 37 in Bopodi, where it has undertaken the super-luxury residential project, Castel Royale Towers.
At a time when the prominent city firm, Avinash Bhosale Infrastructure Ltd (ABIL), has promised to respect public reservations on Survey No 37 in Bopodi, where it has undertaken the super-luxury residential project, Castel Royale Towers, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is mysteriously maintaining a stony silence in the matter.
Leading dalit leaders in the city — such as Nationalist Congress Party’s Jaideo Gaikwad, Republican Party of India’s (Ramdas Athavale group) Parshuram Wadekar and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Milind Kamble — are also among those who have promised to protect the reservations for the benefit of the poor.
Following exclusive reports by DNA beginning May 25, highlighting construction activity close to the massive reservations for an EWS scheme and a children’s playground (CPG) behind the University of Pune’s Khadki gate, ABIL issued a statement stressing categorically that the public reservations would not be touched.
In a statement to DNA (May 28) ABIL Group’s executive director Amit Bhosale said, “We would like to put on record that ABIL Corporation is developing its Castel Royale Towers property only on the residential zone demarcated by the government... Please note that all the different plots earmarked for various reservation/s like children’s playground (CPG), high capacity mass transit route (HCMTR), economically weaker sections (EWS) or any of the other reservation/s have been left untouched. We have no intention of changing any of the reservation/s allocated by the authorities.”
In a series of exclusive reports, DNA highlighted how a large, vacant plot of land near the Khadki gate of the UoP has 2,618 square metres reserved for a children’s playground and 34,289.12 square metres reserved for EWS. This is besides other reservations for a HCMTR and a 30-metre road under the development plan (DP).
The reports pointed out that in 1990, the state government had changed the zoning of 13,715 square meters of land from EWS reservation and converted it into residential zone.
The original title holder of the land, city-based orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Satyasheel Naik, had written to the state urban development department (UDD) asking it to remove the remaining land under the EWS reservation.
In 2009, the state government had written to the PMC asking for its opinion regarding the removal of the remaining reservation.
Civic records show that although nearly two years have passed, the PMC has not replied to this letter.
When asked by DNA to explain its stand with regard to acquiring the land with public reservations on Bopodi Survey No 37, PMC commissioner Mahesh Pathak said, “I will ask an officer to get back to you on this.”
However, more than 10 days after this assurance and reminders, no PMC officer contacted DNA regarding this matter.
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