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Top generals, babus & netas in land-grab

The Mumbai-headquartered Western Naval Command (WNC) has raised serious security concerns and sought action by the navy, army and government against a highrise apartment complex in Mumbai's Colaba area, in which senior military leaders, politicians and bureaucrats own apartments. Among those allotted houses in the 31-storeyed Adarsh Housing Society are two former army chiefs, several other generals and admirals, and political leaders and senior bureaucrats. A recent letter to the navy chief from Vice-Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, WNC, and other documents with TOI reveal a conspiracy to appropriate, in the name of war widows and military veterans, a prime plot that was in the army's custody for years. In the process, the army even lied to the ministry of defence (MoD), which then misled Parliament, when a starred question regarding the ownership of the land came up in 2003. Almost every army officer involved in misleading Parliament now owns a house in the complex. In his letter, Admiral Bhasin says that the housing society is now refusing to part with the list of its members and the Maharashtra government too does not have the details. The building, immediately adjacent to a planned helipad and other military installations, has violated the CRZ ( coastal regulation zone) limit of a maximum height of 30 metres, and has now gone up to 100 metres, says Bhasin inhis letter dated July 5 of this year. The Western Naval Command chief has suggested that the army be asked to institute a formal inquiry to find out duplicity, if any, by serving/retired officers in reappropriation of the ecological park managed and occupied by HQ MG&G (headquarters, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa) Area since 1996. He also wants the MoD to take up the issue with the Maharashtra government and ensure that further construction is stopped and occupancy permission is not given. The controversy fundamentally hinges around whether the plot of land belonged to the army or not and in this matter, several senior army officials were more than cooperative in declaring that it did not. Crucial documents that prove the army's possession of the land and the Maharashtra government's past commitment to give the plot to the army have gone missing from the records of the concerned army offices in Mumbai and Pune. TOI now has many of those documents. When we sent a detailed questionnaire based on these undisclosed facts to the army headquarters a few weeks ago, the only reply was, "We are looking into all aspects brought out by you." The story began a few months after the Kargil conflict of 1999 when the army vacated the controversial land in Colaba, handing it over to Adarsh Housing Society. Almost every army officer who was in the chain of command when this transfer and subsequent developments happened, including two former army chiefs, now have apartments in the highrise. Senior bureaucrats in the state who played important roles in the decision-making process hold apartments through their relatives, as do politicians from the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena. Almost everyone who could have objected to the project appear to have been silenced with apartments in the highrise, which consequently rose from the original plan of six floors to the present 31 floors. Documents show that the land on which Adarsh Society stands today (Block VI in Colaba) was to be the army's in exchange for a plot it gave up in Mumbai's Santa Cruz rifle range in the mid-1950s for the construction of the Western Express Highway. In a letter dated December 31, 1958, joint secretary in the MoD, S D Nargolwala, wrote to the secretary of the public works department of Bombay, referring to a discussion between the chief minister and defence minister where they agreed on the land swap. The army was to be given land in Block VI, an area adjacent to the site where defence installations are already situated. The letter also says that in case the transfer did not take place, the state government would financially compensate the army.

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