30 Acres of Forest Land in Pune was sold to Private Builder
The bureaucrats and politicians colluded with the private builder to grab the 30 acres of forest land in Pune. A special committee probe has found that 30 acres of forest land worth Rs. 1000 crore in Pune was sold to a private builder for mere Rs. 2 crore. The case is now in the Supreme Court.
The investigation started after an NGO, Nagrik Chetna Manch, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court in 2007. The NGO wanted to know how a 30-acre forest land in the middle of Pune’s most expensive real estate was sold to Richie Rich Cooperative for construction without the mandatory environmental clearance of the Centre. The court ordered a Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) probe that unravelled a huge land grab involving bureaucrats, and most damagingly Congress minister Narayan Rane, then in the Shiv Sena.
In 1992, the District Collector sanctioned 3 acres of forest land as compensation to a displaced family of farmers-the Chavans. Two years later in 1994, the Pune Divisional Commissioner surprisingly allotted the entire 30 acres to the Chavans for agricultural purposes only.Yet even before the allotment letter arrived, the Chavans sold it to Richie Rich Cooperative for nearly Rs. 2 crore. The CEC report says government officials connived for personal gain of developers.
Read More… Pune Land grab: Builder babu neta nexus exposed-NDTV.com
30 acres of forest land in Pune, Centrally Empowered Committee, Forest Land Grab in Pune, NGO Nagrik Chetna Manch, Pune builders, Pune Forest Land, Pune Land Grab
