DP shocker: 'Officials took Rs40 lakh per acre to demark reservations in Tathawade village'

The committee appointed for hearing complaints on draft development plan (DP) of Tathawade village in Pimpri Chinchwad has levelled serious allegations against the officials involved in preparing the DP.

Alleging that the officials took bribe worth crores of rupees for demarking the reservations, the committee claimed that the rate for excluding one acre of land from reservation was fixed at Rs 40 lakh.

“Most of the reservations have been put on the farmers’ lands while the lands belonging to big builders have been saved by way of such illegal means,” said Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation standing committee chairman Navnath Jagtap, who was part of the panel that visited Tathawade village recently.

A six-member committee was formed to conduct spot visit of the village over the objections raised by villagers. Besides Jagtap, the committee included corporators Maya Barne, Sunita Waghire, retired joint director of town planning M V Kolatkar, deputy director Y S.Kulkarni and retired additional secretory of urban development department V M Ranade.

Jagtap said that during the spot visit, the farmers openly alleged that the officials who were involved in preparing the DP collected huge amounts from builders. According to farmers, the rate of marking the land as residential zone was Rs 40 lakh per acre.

“It has been observed that the farmers, who have small land holdings, are affected by the reservations while big land holdings by builders have been kept untouched,” Jagtap said, adding, “It is surprising why the land belonging to builders remained untouched while farmers who own small piece of land have been affected by the reservations.”

According to the committee, nearly 25 builders and local agents were allegedly involved in bribing the government officials who prepared the draft DP. “We are going to submit the report of the hearing and the spot visit to municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi and will suggest at least 40 per cent changes in the DP,” said Jagtap.