The MoD is caught in a piquant situation with its Estates Directorate in Mumbai facing allegations of “demanding bribes” for handing over flats.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is caught in a piquant situation with its Estates Directorate in Mumbai facing allegations of “demanding bribes” for handing over flats, hired by it to accommodate Navy personnel in the port city, back to the owners.
The 28 flats, hired by the ministry over half-a-century ago in prime localities such as Churchgate and Sion, are at present in a state of disuse. “Yet, the Defence Estates Directorate (DED) officers in Mumbai are demanding large sums of money — running into lakhs - for vacating the dilapidated flats that the Navy has been occupying for several decades now,” said Nilesh Mistry, one of the affected flat owners from Vasant Sagar Apartments at Churchgate.
The Defence Estates Office, Mumbai had hired the flat for a paltry sum as rent five decades ago. Though the apartment building is old, the flats are still worth several crores of rupees in today’s real estate market. This is why, Mistry alleged, the officers are demanding the ‘exit money’. Defence Minister AK Antony has already directed the DED headquarters in New Delhi to vacate the flats that were inspected by the ministry officials recently and declared “uninhabitable”.
“The defence minister has approved the de-hiring of the 28 flats... in the seniority list. The DEO, Mumbai may please be directed to convey the decision of the MoD to Western Naval Command headquarters and take necessary action urgently on the above,” the official communication from the Directorate headquarters to its Principal Director in the Southern Army Command Headquarters at Pune said.
The ministry had formed a committee in March to inspect the flats to ascertain which of them were uninhabitable and could be vacated. It submitted its report on May 6 and recommended that the first batch of 28 flats be vacated forthwith. Mistry, representing the affected flat owners and is pursuing the vacation process with the DED, has alleged that the Mumbai Defence Estates officers “seem to be working hand-in-hand with a real estate mafia and are refusing to vacate the flats.”
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