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Suddenly, flats fall in forest landSunday 25, June, 2006 Thousands of flat owners and industrialists around Thane, Mulund, Borivali and Kandivali may have to pay a heavy price for a major faux pas by the state?s revenue department over the classification of ?forest land?. The Maharashtra state government has issued instructions to the sub-registrars in these areas not to undertake any registrations in ?forest land?.?Flat registrations in these areas have come down drastically to 20-21 from 40-45 per day. The office of the sub-registrar has been asked not to register sales in areas now declared as forest land,? Anil Shamdasani, a Thane-based legal consultant said. He said the government?s new move has also affected resale of flats in buildings constructed on these ?forest lands?. The government?s recent discovery that the land on which these properties have been developed is a ?forest? zone, and is not for habitation, has shocked many. The issue centres on a law called Maharashtra Private Forest Acquisition Act enacted in 1975. The act makes it mandatory for the state to notify forest land under private possession. The state?s forest department complied with the rules and forwarded the list of private forests to the revenue department, the custodian of records. It was the revenue department?s duty to undertake the process and notify this land and protect it from its change of use. For reasons best known to them, the department did nothing till the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG), an NGO, approached the Bombay High Court in ?05. The court set May 31, ?06 as the deadline for the state to carry out the land mutation process and finalise its classification. Meanwhile, this erstwhile ?forest? land had undergone a major change as the government had allowed its change of use without having changed the original records. ?This means the land being developed for various purposes over the years is forest land, and hence, the development becomes technically illegal,? a highly-placed official from the forest ministry told ET. As in the case of Ulhasnagar, a distant Mumbai suburb, the government can issue an ordinance to ?legalise? all development. But that may put the government at risk of violating the Central government?s Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which forbids development on land notified as forest. Recently, the Supreme Court pulled up former state forest minister Surup Singh Naik and forest secretary Ashok Khot for violating the act and sentenced them to a month in prison. As a result, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government has sought legal opinion to find a way out of the crisis. ?The issue is being taken up by the Cabinet. We may have to approach the Supreme Court for a remedy,? an official said. |
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