Top generals, babus & netas in land-grab-Oct 24, 2010,

Top generals, babus & netas in land-grab

Josy Joseph, TNN, Oct 24, 2010, 11.56pm IST


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.

In 1973, the state government gave BEST, the city's electricity and transport utility, 5.14 acres of land from Block VI along Capt Prakash Pethe Marg for a bus depot. It undertook reclamation in the 1980s and left 200 feet outside its compound wall for the proposed road. Immediately after, encroachments came up on the open strip of land. Even though the transfer was yet to be done in the army's favour, it carried out afforestation on the land to prevent encroachments, according to documents. A park was, in fact, inaugurated on October 27, 1996 by the then GOC of MG&G Area, Major General B A Kariappa.

In 2000, when the state government issued the modified development plan for 1981-2001, it reduced the width of Capt Prakash Pethe Marg from the proposed 200 feet to 60 feet. Together with the land that was already there, the entire area was earmarked for a parade ground, helipad, garden, BEST depot and residential zone. Adarsh Society has now come up in this residential zone.

On March 29, 2000, the collector of Mumbai city wrote to the GOC of the Maharashtra and Gujarat Area. In an evident attempt to make out that the land belonged to the state government, not the army, he said that he had received a request for the allotment of "government land for residents of the staff members of defence service personnel" (sic) and that during the site inspection on March 27 "it is revealed that the military department has constructed the wall to the above plot and hence the government land (was) protected from encroachment". "You are, therefore requested to confirm that there is no objection to allot the land to the proposed society of the service personnel", the letter added.

The army officers seemed to have moved with alacrity to respond positively to the collector's letter. Just a day later, on March 30, headquarters MG&G Area sought a report from the defence estate officer (DEO), Mumbai, to confirm the status of the land. On the same day, the DEO replied saying, "It is verified from our records that land in question" falls "outside of the defence boundary".

On April 5, 2000, Colonel S S Jog of the area headquarters wrote to the collector saying that "necessary action at your end may be taken as deemed fit for the welfare of service personnel/ex-servicemen/their widows". A day later on April 6, Colonel Jog made a minute sheet for records. The note said the draft reply was "prepared and finalised" after "having been vetted by Dy GO/GOC in chair" and that "it was ascertained" that Adarsh Society wanted to develop "the above land for kith and kin of servicemen/ex-servicemen/ their widows". Col Jog's worry about the entire action is palpable in his handwritten note, which says, "It is reiterated that NO, repeat NO, NOC was given to the collector's office." For any activity within 1,000 metres of a defence installation, militarys no-objection certificate is a must under the law.

The collector, on his part, continued to imply that the land was not legally owned by the army in his allotment letter issued to Adarsh Society in 2000 which says that the land was "in the custody of the defence department". This letter is among the many documents that are mysteriously missing from the military stations in Mumbai, according to TOI investigations. The letter also lays down several parameters for members including the fact they should have "lived continuously" in Maharashtra for at least 15 years, which almost all the senior officers who own flats do not fulfill.

In December 2003, when a starred question on the issue was asked in Parliament, the MoD misled Parliament based on notings that originated from Mumbai's army station. Col R K Bakshi, SO (land) for the general officer commanding the area, wrote to the Pune-based southern command that the "subject land has never been/is not under the occupation of the army". This falsification of fact was repeated by Brigadier Parvinder Singh on behalf of the southern command to the headquarters in Delhi. He wrote to the army headquarters repeating it, which MoD later told Parliament.

General Vij was the army chief when Parliament was misled, and owns a house in the Adarsh apartment complex. Vij is now the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, holding a minister of state rank. Lt Gen Shantanu Chaudhary, the then vice-chief of army staff, also owns an apartment in the complex. So does Colonel Amarjit Singh, who was then Chaudharys staff officer.

As concerns mounted about the entire episode and its illegality began to emerge, at least the department of defence estates changed its earlier stand and opposed the project. Veena Maitra, then director general of defence estates, wrote on March 8, 2004, to the southern army command and other authorities, pointing out that the land "has been always under the occupation of the Army, is located inside military area and is bounded by a boundary wall and a gate made by MES (Military Engineering Service)". Despite those facts, "the local army authorities had given an NOC as senior uniformed officers had become members of the residential society intended to be set up on this land", Maitra said.

After the army headquarters asked the southern army command for a response to Maitra's letter, the latter on May 25, 2004, placed several facts, many of them wrong, to argue that the land never belonged to the army. "To prevent encroachment from slum dwellers and to ensure hygienic environment in this area, being in proximity of officers mess, some trees had been planted by the local military authority in the mid-nineties." The letter goes on to say that Adarsh Society "has membership from various sections of society, including serving and retired defence services persons as well as civilians from all walks of life." And it adds, "Lt Gen G S Sihota, PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VM, ADC had applied for membership of this society."

One of the most damning pieces of evidence of the manipulation is recorded in a set of letters written by Saurav Ray, defence estate officer, Mumbai, on July 14, 16 and 25 of 2003, to headquarters MG&G Area. He points out that Adarsh Society "is not exclusively a defence entity. It has approximately 33 civilians among 62 members and it has the potential of being a business enterprise of vested interests in the garb of welfare". And adding a new twist to the story is western naval command chief Vice-Admiral Bhasin's July 5 letter to navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, saying the Adarsh society was "deliberately" refusing to part with the list of apartment owners.