Mumbai: For a journalist who has covered Mumbai and its real estate sector for close to two decades, Patra Chawl, otherwise known as Siddharth Nagar, the faces of hundreds of residents flash in his or her mind.
In the last one decade or more, many residents of Patra Chawl located in Mumbai’s Goregaon area have contacted this correspondent, to write about their ordeal. Let’s go back in history, almost 15 years ago, in 2008 MHADA got into a tri-partie agreement with a private developer named Guru Ashish Constructions and the tenants society comprising of 672 tenants of the Chawl.
Spread over 47 acres of land, the builder who turned greedy, instead of rehabilitating the tenants started looking for his personal profits, he started selling the saleable portions first, including selling FSI belonging to the land was sold to 9 different developers.
Meanwhile, several tenants started approaching the Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (MHADA) by 2014 as rents to many of them had stopped. For those out of Mumbai, and reading this when a developer takes over a redevelopment project he pays rent to the society members till he has constructed and hands over them the possession of their house.
Reports suggest that since ED started its investigation it found that Pravin Raut, an alleged close associate of Sanjay Raut, and also of some directors of Guru Ashish Constructions had started misleading MHADA within a few years of the agreement. It is pegged that Pravin Raut allegedly sold the floor space index (FSI) to nine private developers, collecting Rs 901.79 crore. The developer is allowed to sell the FSI no doubt but only after he has constructed and rehabilitated the tenants and in this case since 2008 till date the tenants are awaiting their homes.
Most tenants hail from the middle-class community and have been actually suffering because they lost their home to a developer who had promised them rent and home back. However, they received none. I wouldn’t be wrong to say that most of these tenants hail from the Maharashtrian community, of which Sanjay Raut claims to be the biggest leader of.
Coming back to Sanjay Raut, the reports further claim that ED has stated that Pravin Raut an alleged close aide of Sanjay Raut received Rs 100 crore from a real estate company and then it was allegedly diverted to various accounts of his alleged close associates, and even family members. Sanjay Raut’s name has already featured as his alleged close aide several times now.
Another report suggests that ED has alleged that as early as 2010 just two years of the agreement, Rs 83 lakh, was allegedly transferred to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut, who apparently used the money to buy a flat in Dadar.
The other allegation is that around eight plots of land were purchased at Alibaug in the name of Varsha Raut and another woman Swapna Patkar. The last name may ring a bell, for that go to Twitter and look for it.
The builder who was only interested in profit had even allegedly duped several home buyers, by selling them homes in the building.
It is believed that the Patra Chawl scam is of no less than Rs 1000 crore and is a classic example of making the common citizens suffer and thriving nexus between Politicians and the Builder-Babu network.
The investigation should also move to the offices of MHADA and those officials who were supposed to be accountable to get these tenants a home but failed.
Earlier this year, MHADA, the state’s housing body had announced that it will be constructing homes for the 672 tenants of Siddharth Nagar or Patra Chawl and give them homes measuring 650 square feet. The inauguration programme for the same was attended by then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Sanjay Raut is undoubtedly close to both of them.
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