Shiv Sena attacks Royal Palms for misuse of land
Moves motion saying Amir Group misused land allotted in Aarey Colony, prompts probe by legislators panel
Ravikiran Deshmukh
Shiv Sena legislators on Friday turned their guns on Royal Palms and Balaji Telefilms, accusing them of misusing Aarey Colony land in Goregaon (East).
Royal Palms is owned by Amir Nancy and Balaji Telefilms by Ekta Kapoor, daughter of actor Jeetendra, who is known for producing some popular TV serials.
The matter was on the agenda of the Assembly during question hour. It was addressed to Revenue Minister Narayan Rane.
Incidentally, Rane was the revenue minister even at the time the land allotment was made to Amir Nancy by the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1998.
However, due to time constraints, the matter could not come up for discussion on Friday.
On seeing this, Sena MLA Gajanan Kirtikar moved a calling attention motion to ensure that the House took up the issue on Friday itself.
Leading the attack, Kirtikar alleged that the Amir Group had shifted some tribals from their land to the Aarey Colony land so that responsibility of rehabilitating them fell upon the state government, and constructing buildings on land allotted to construct a link road.
He also alleged that some of the godowns given to Balaji Telefilms had been converted into studios and are being used to shoot TV serials.
All this was done with the blessings of the dairy development department, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the collector, Kirtikar alleged.
He was supported by his party colleagues Dagdu Sapkal and Dattaji Nalwade, and Raju Shetty, an independent member.
Replying to the allegations, Minister of State for Dairy Development Hasan Mushrif said that the land being used by Balaji Telefilms was originally given to Filmcity, a state government enterprise. Hence, Filmcity is responsible for that land.
With regard to the Amir Group, he categorically stated that the land in question [a whopping 17,600 square metres] was allotted to construct a link road, and not buildings.
Sena MLAs got further agitated on seeing Mushrif avoid a direct reply to their allegations on the issue of relocating tribals.
To pacify them, Mushrif offered to appoint a committee comprising Dairy Development Minister Anis Ahmad and himself from the government side, and Kirtikar, (Sena MLA) Subhash Desai and Raju Shetty from the opposition benches.
Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar asked members to raise remaining issues before the committee.
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
