The brazenness with which three chief ministers of Maharashtra, various ministers, 21 bureaucrats, politicians of major political parties — Congress, NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena, retired Army top brass, and the then CBI sleuths who played second fiddle to them, colluded to usurp land belonging to the Navy in South Mumbai boggles the mind. They plotted in the name of the widows of the 1999 Kargil War to eat up not only the Navy’s land but also the land adjoining it that belonged to the BEST bus depot (in return for which a BEST chairman’s daughter got a flat) to construct a posh but illegal 31-storey building, Adarsh, and distributed the flats between them, their relations and friends.
In every case the bureaucrats who bent the rules to help these people were given flats. As the court that ordered the immediate demolition of Adarsh pointed out, there was quid pro quo involved all along the way. It makes one wonder if there is any difference between them and other enemies of the nation.
These ministers and bureaucrats, who take an oath to protect the interests of the people and the state’s precious resources, in this case 3,758 square metres of prime land, appropriated it for their personal aggrandisement even though a majority of them already owned flats in the city. This is an assault on democracy and the real place for all these people named by the judges of the Bombay High Court should be Arthur Road Jail and hard labour.
The court has given the Adarsh Cooperative Society and residents 12 weeks to challenge the demolition order. It is hoped that the case will be heard without much delay or it will take away the sting and seriousness from the Bombay high court’s strong indictment of corruption in high places. The case has been going on since 2010. In 2011, the then environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, had ordered the demolition of the building as it violated all Coastal Regulation Zone norms and the builders had not even applied for environmental clearance. But this was challenged and it survived for six years.
Adarsh is just the tip of the iceberg. The impunity with which the builders operated in this city, where land is scarce, was obvious. They wielded huge political clout and knew they could always get these irregularities regularised later. This was almost the rule, so Adarsh was no different. It is estimated that there are over 20,000 such illegal buildings in Mumbai which the government is contemplating regularising, though in another judgment earlier this week the Bombay high court ordered the demolition of all illegal buildings. It remains to be seen how the government tackles this; it has been given time to reply.
